A leading telco provider with 3,000+ edge locations was looking to modernize their infrastructure. They approached me with concerns over operational complexity, lack of automation, and edge security gaps. Our answer: a VCF 5.2.1 edge deployment model.
Innovative Architecture: We designed a scalable and secure architecture based on VMware Validated Designs and VCF Reference Architecture for Edge (see: https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Cloud-Foundation/5.2.1/vcf-deploy/GUID-6F5B1D42-9F52-4A83-BF89-5D3776568C61.html).
We deployed Workload Domains with Edge Clusters using L3-based NSX Edge node design. With vSAN HCI Mesh support in VCF 5.2.1 (see: https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Cloud-Foundation/5.2.1/vcf-storage/GUID-6FBD8A31-6EF0-4FD4-AC9E-C18238A95C1C.html), edge sites could now mount shared storage without needing local disks.
TAM Role: I led discovery sessions with the customer’s teams to map legacy router and firewall roles to NSX-T logical topologies. We used NSX Federation features for centralized policy management, with NSX-T route redistribution and BGP peering handling north-south traffic.
We also enabled LCM automation for all edge software stack updates, significantly reducing the human effort needed at each site.
Key Achievements:
- Reduced edge provisioning time by 60%
- Rolled out 400+ NSX Segments in under 3 weeks
- Enabled 100% API-based configuration for Day 2 Ops
- Full L3 segmentation for tenant isolation across the edge
Reference Documentation:
