Understanding the Need to Move to a Cloud Platform

Welcome! If you have any connection to delivering software at scale in the enterprise, we hope this book will be beneficial to you. In this first chapter, we’ll establish the context in which a product such as VMware Tanzu could emerge. We’ll do this with a walk-through of the evolution of enterprise software over the last 20 years covering the major milestones, inflection points, and problems that surfaced along the way.

Then, once we have established the necessary context, we can give a 10,000-foot overview of Tanzu covering the tools, benefits, and features. And finally, we’ll set you up for success by covering some of the technical prerequisites you should have in place if you want to engage with any of the hands-on content in this book.

In this chapter, we will cover the following:

• The challenges of running a software supply chain
• The emergence of the cloud and containers
• Kubernetes
• Outcome-driven approach
• The need for VMware Tanzu