VMware Launches DEX Improvements to Optimize Efficiency and Cost for the Employee Experience

Jun 12, 2023

VMware, a provider of multi-cloud services for all apps, is announcing a series of upgrades to its digital employee experience (DEX) solution that will ultimately increase its presence as a unified approach toward empowering IT teams’ productivity while reducing cost drains. These enhancements—including the general availability of DEX for third party managed devices, DEX for VMware Horizon, AI-driven Guided Root Cause Analysis (RCA), and the expansion of Workspace ONE ITSM Connector for ServiceNow—propel VMware’s mission to supply holistic, effective employee experiences that transform workplace efficiency and engagement.

The launch of DEX for third party managed devices unifies employee experience measurements across endpoints from third parties, expanding the flexibility of customer deployment, according to the vendor. The entirety of the DEX offering is now available for Windows devices managed by third party solutions.

Addressing the world of virtual applications and desktops, DEEM is now available for VMware Horizon, enabling users to measure end user experiences occurring in these spaces. Any changes to the employee experience score will automatically alert IT, driving fast remediation of issues for users leveraging the Horizon platform.

“VMware IT has been using DEX to shift to a more proactive, data-driven IT approach,” said Pam Cocca, vice president of IT colleague experience and technology at VMware. “Not only has this saved engineering hours in resolving issues faster and at scale, but it has created colleague confidence in our IT organization. Using DEEM for Insights and proactive support, VMware IT has realized, on average, a 35% reduction in mean time to resolution of support issues over the past six months. This saves valuable IT time and returns employees to productivity quicker.”  

The general availability of VMware’s Guided RCA brings a proactive approach to IT, according to the vendor. By leveraging AI, the solution identifies the likely root cause of an issue, paired with a confidence score, ultimately mitigating extensive drains on time and effort during issue identification and evaluation.

“Organizations across industries are struggling to keep up with the increased IT incidents and growing employee turnover rates as they navigate the new challenges brought on by hybrid work. Successful organizations must prioritize technology that enables IT teams with the right tools to not only resolve issues faster, but prevent them from happening in the future,” said Shankar Iyer, senior vice president and general manager of end-user computing at VMware. “VMware’s comprehensive DEX solution uses automation to enable IT teams with data-driven insights that enable improved efficiency and great experiences for employees.”

The Workspace ONE ITSM Connector for ServiceNow extends VMware’s shift-left approach to use cases within service desk teams, optimizing troubleshooting and issue resolution that arise due to employee experience issues. Amplifying the ITSM Connector with capabilities including experience scoring, an expanded set of unified endpoint management actions, and the ability to trigger workflows created by IT teams in VMware Freestyle Orchestrator enables service desk teams to remediate experience issues more efficiently and effectively.

To learn more about VMware’s series of DEX announcements, please visit https://www.vmware.com/.

With 52% Of AT&T’s Traffic, DriveNets Aims At AI Networking

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - SEPTEMBER 12, 2018: The entrance to an AT&T store in San Francisco, ... [+] California. (Photo by Robert Alexander/Getty Images)

ChatGPT has ignited fear of missing out in the hearts of investors.

That FOMO was sparked by the unexpectedly large second quarter demand for Nvidia chips that power the machines that train and operate such large language models.

Most of the publicly-traded companies that stand to profit from generative AI — including Microsoft MSFT , Google GOOG , Amazon, Meta Platforms, Nvidia, Arista Networks ANET — are now well known.

Ra'anana, Israel-based DriveNets — a provider of cloud networking software — is a less well-known beneficiary of generative AI.

DriveNets — which has helped build cloud-based networks that now handle 52% of AT&T’s core production traffic, according to Communications Today — expects its technology to be in strong demand from companies like Microsoft and Google that are building and training LLMs.

Sadly for investors, DriveNets is still privately held; however, its CEO told me an IPO could be an option for raising growth capital.

(I have no financial interest in the securities mentioned in this post).

To design, train, and operate LLMs, ChatGPT and other LLMs require substantial processing power. This represents a substantial market opportunity for providers of networking technology. Winners in the competition for this growing opportunity must satisfy demanding purchase criteria.

The market for cloud AI networking is growing rapidly. Between 2022 and 2027, industry analyst firm 650 Group, forecasts 38% average annual growth in the AI cluster connectivity market from $2 billion to “more than $10 billion.”

Due to the high cost of building and operating the networks needed to design, train, and operate LLMs, Microsoft and other hyperscalers are eager to maximize their processing power.

To do that, hyperscalers seek to process their AI workloads on networks with no idle time. As Ido Susan, DriveNets co-founder and CEO, explained, “AI compute resources are extremely costly and must be fully utilized to avoid 'idle cycles' as they await networking tasks.”

DriveNet deploys Ethernet communication technology which is more efficient than InfiniBand and occupies most of the market. DriveNets’ Network Cloud-AI boosts the utilization of AI compute resources — achieving up to 30% reduction in idle time, according to Susan.

One analyst is bullish on DriveNets’ ability to gain market share in cloud AI networking. According to Alan Weckel, founder and technology analyst at 650 Group, “DriveNets is an innovator that disrupted the traditional high-scale networking market, showing that a dis aggregated, white-box-based solution [— which saves money by running bespoke software on commodity hardware rather than expensive, proprietary switches —] can deliver greater network scale at a lower cost.”

Weckel sees DriveNets being a leader in AI networking as well. “They are now ready to do it again in AI networking, participating in early high-scale AI trials and [tapping into] the experience they acquired by building the largest core network in the world,” he said.

To be sure, DriveNets faces competition — including Arista Networks — which intends to provide customers a hybrid approach depending on the type of application.

As Arista CEO Jayshree Ullal told me in May 2023, “We are comfortable with the idea of a white box since that is how we started as software running on everyone else’s hardware. We want to provide customers what they need. For less mission-critical applications, they can use white boxes. For specialized applications — such as turnkey healthcare or financial solutions — they need Arista.”

Ullal agrees Ethernet is a crucial technology for generative AI as the amount of traffic that such networks must carry has exploded from the 1970s, when the maximum bandwidth envisioned was 2.95 megabits per second — well-below the more than 800 gigabits per second hyperscalers currently require.

DriveNets was started by Susan who sold his first company to Cisco Systems CSCO and took a leadership position there where he learned valuable business lessons.

In 2015, he co-founded DriveNets to do the same thing for networking as the cloud did for computing and storage. DriveNets has helped companies such as AT&T to lower their capital and operating expenses while accelerating their ability to innovate.

As Susan told me in a May 25 interview, before starting his first company he was in the Israeli army focused on technology. He co-founded Intucell, a networking technology company, which Cisco acquired in 2013 for $475 million.

He appreciates what he learned from Cisco. “Now we are competing with Cisco. I still have friends there. It is the best school for entrepreneurship. It sells $1 billion a week and you learn how the channel works and how to package products. I started studying computer science and got a degree from Cisco,” he said.

DriveNets was founded to solve the high costs and innovation-impeding nature of network equipment that locked customers into a single vendor. As Susan said, “While software, computing, and data storage have moved to the cloud, networking still locks in customers to a single vendor through proprietary hardware — making it more difficult for companies to move fast and innovate.”

DriveNets aimed to solve the problem by building “a next-generation software-centric service that would enable 24 x 7 deployment, be convenient to buy, and change how they manage networks. We help the world's largest network owners to detach a network’s growth from its cost,” he explained.

DriveNets has landed a plum client. “Over 50% of AT&T’s T network is running on our technology. They are enjoying 10-fold savings on capital expenditures and operating expenditures. We convinced AT&T to buy from us as a startup by building trust between people. My team is strong and comes from top industry leaders. We take the time, we go to the lab, we show it’s working,” Susan said.

AT&T said that DriveNets has helped it to carry more than half of its traffic via an “open disaggregated core routing platform.” Mike Satterlee, VP of AT&T’s Network Core Infrastructure Services, said the telecom giant began running some of its network backbone on DriveNets core routing software beginning in September 2020. While DriveNets expected to support all of AT&T’s traffic by the end of 2022, it ended the year with 52%, according to sdxcentral.

DriveNets has raised a total of $587 million in three funding rounds — most recently a $262 million financing in March 2022 that valued the company at nearly $1.6 billion, according to Pitchbook.

Susan is proud of DriveNets’ accomplishments. “We have tens of millions in revenue, we are doubling year over year. Our clients are top tier service providers and hyperscalers. We reduce the cost per bit and enable customers to innovate faster,” he said.

DriveNets anticipates a significant opportunity in AI networking. As Susan explained, “We see an opportunity in generative AI. Our fabric uses Ethernet to connect tens of thousands of GPUs to train large language models. Our cloud network enables 32,000 Nvidia GPUs to handle 800 gigabnits. It is better than InfiniBand networks that can only handle hundreds of GPUs.”

He also aspires to take the company public. “My goal is for DriveNets to be a huge, unique company like VMWare that is bigger than HP HPQ or Dell. As far as exits are concerned — whether M&A or IPO — they are tools to raise money. Investors should provide us capital because we are in a big market controlled by incumbents with no innovation. It is time to disrupt them.”

If DriveNets chooses the IPO route, investors may want to take a close look.

Learning, Design and Technology

As an online Ed.D. student in learning, design and technology, you will learn to use advanced research methods to study and identify educational opportunities in various settings while also developing and evaluating new ways to address those opportunities.

Unlike a Ph.D. program, the Ed.D. program emphasizes applied research, culminating in the completion of a problem-based dissertation or project. Rather than leading to an academic career, the Ed.D. is designed for educators who want to contribute to the educational technology field at the highest levels of practice.

Application Deadline

Admission Requirements

Domestic Students

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How to ApplyPlease visit our program admission webpage for more details.

*If you have received a Master's in Science degree in Learning, Design, and Technology from the University of Wyoming, the GRE is not required.

These are just some of courses you might take as a UW learning, design and technology Ed.D. student:

View the full doctor of education learning, design and technology concentration degree program curriculum.

The UW Ed.D. degree in learning, design and technology prepares you for executive-level positions in K-12 settings, government, business and higher educational environments.

Learning, Design and Technology Careers

UW learning, design and technology Ed.D. graduates can be employed in the following roles:

Complete a problem-based dissertation on a topic that aligns with your interests and career goals. Past titles include:

The UW Doctor of Education program in learning, design and technology offers the convenience of online learning, so you can earn a terminal degree and prepare for executive-level leadership positions in a way that fits with your life.

Here are some reasons to consider UW’s Ed.D. program in learning, design and technology:

Online Delievery

The learning, design and technology program at UW takes place 100 percent online.

Accredited

The UW College of Education is nationally accredited by the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP).

Electronic Portfolio

Develop an ePortfolio with the help of your advisor or dissertation chair during each year of your program. The ePortfolio will include annual goals and document your progress as well as provide a record of your intellectual and professional development.

Small Classes

Learn in small online classes where you will receive individual attention from faculty. Average class sizes for classes in the learning, design and technology program are 12 students.

Minor

Incorporate a graduate minor in qualitative or quantitative methodologies into your doctoral program.

Faculty

Study and conduct research alongside faculty who are experts in educational technology and preparing educators for contemporary learning practices.

Assistantships

Apply for a graduate assistantship, which offers full-time, on-campus students with faculty research opportunities, college-level teaching experiences and stipends.

Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate (CPED)

Choose a program dedicated to quality. UW’s College of Education is among the 100 or so institutions that belong to the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate. This means we apply the CPED quality framework to help prepare you to become a skilled practitioner who can meet contemporary educational challenges.

Scholarships

Help fund your Ph.D. through a College of Education graduate scholarship. Scholarships are available specifically for students in the learning, design and technology program, such as:

Clarence Jayne ScholarshipKercher Family Scholarship

If you considering an academic or leadership career in instructional design, this program might also interest you: