In our last blog post, we explained why three important new features make it the right time to upgrade your data center to VMware vCloud Director® 8.10—a comprehensive solution for service providers to provision multitenant virtual data centers (VDC) across the hybrid cloud. This week we turn to the solution’s updated architecture. From enhanced security to more customizable virtual-machine placement, here are three more reasons to upgrade to vCloud Director 8.10:

Increased customization – With vCloud Director 8.10, service providers have the ability to customize virtual-machine placement and deploy in VMware vSphere® clusters—a real productivity boost to IT administrators who must simultaneously manage multiple virtual data centers with multiple requirements. This architecture update provides greater flexibility and overall environment control compared to previous versions of the software. It also improves cost-efficiencies and tailors customer experiences by integrating virtual-machine lifecycle workflows into external systems. Watch how administrators can boost productivity by creating and using VDC templates in vCloud Director 8.10.

Heightened security – vCloud Director 8.10 is even more tightly integrated with the VMware NSX® solution, relying solely on the VMware NSX Manager™ platform to provide network functions to virtual data centers. The user interface now integrates directly with NSX 6.10 and 6.20. Additionally, the new version of the vCloud Director solution now deploys VMware NSX Edge™ gateways by default whenever a new organization edge is created, resulting in improved performance and stability.

One IP to rule them all – Long gone are the days when two IP addresses were needed to support multiple endpoints. Previously, vCloud Director software required two IP addresses to support two SSL endpoints: One was used as the overall user interface and API endpoint for Web portal and API calls, and the other was used for listening to console proxy requests that allowed users to log in to virtual machines using their consoles. With this update, you do not need two sets of IP addresses for installation purposes. vCloud Director users can rely on a single IP address with two different ports as SSL endpoints.

All three of these advances work in tandem to optimize performance and improve customer experience with the new architecture of vCloud Director 8.10.

New online resources and VMware Education make it even easier to upgrade to vCloud Director 8.10. The vCloud Director product page offers a wealth of information for those new to the solution, including the vCloud Director 8.10 technical white paper and a selection of case studies showcasing some of our latest success stories.

Now available on the VMware Solution Exchange, the VMware vCloud Director Compatibility Guide lists products built by members of the VMware Independent Software Vendor Program that are compatible with the vCloud Director 8.10 update, streamlining the vendor selection process. We have also launched a new VMware vCloud Director Fundamentals course focusing on everything version 8.10 has to offer through 3.5 hours of self-paced learning, as well as a VMware vCloud Director: Install, Configure, Manage course. With the next release of the vCloud Director solution in the first quarter of 2017, look for more training opportunities. Watch our video: vCloud Director Object Extensibility.