Foreword

At the time of writing, I am right in the middle of nowhere in the western United States. Yet—through the magic of a communications network spanning the globe—I could pay for my breakfast without any form of cash and get a confirmation in a bit under thirty seconds from my bank over 13,000 kilometers away. Meanwhile, people in the VMware vExpert community were communicating with me, and I asked a digital personal assistant living in my cellphone for the most direct route back to the hotel.

Even though we sometimes take this for granted a bit too much, it is undeniable that over the last 50 years, digital telecommunication networks have revolutionized the way we work, live, and communicate, from the humble beginnings of ARPANET all the way to the most recent revolutionary development of software-defined networking, which is where the book that you are currently holding comes in.

This book will help you understand the concepts of VMware NSX for vSphere, provide you with the technical details behind the product, and give you a great overview of all the different components, including external products such as vRealize Log Insight, and the variety of API integrations available. For beginning and advanced readers equally, there's something to be found that should make this book worthwhile for you, as either a reference guide, a study book, or as a general introduction into VMware NSX for vSphere.

For me personally, I like the fact that this book is interspersed with command-line snippets that will make your life easier when working with the product. It adds serious value to each individual recipe by showing you alternate ways to configure something, troubleshoot issues, or validate your configuration, and teaches you how the product works beyond the standard GUI-based configuration.

By reading this book, I've actually learned that I have been wrong about a technical fact since I've started working with NSX in late 2013, so I'm more than certain that there's something left to be learned, regardless of your skill level and your technical knowledge.

Sjors Robroek
VCDX-NV #237 and Senior Consultant at VMware