Vagrant 1.1 has introduced a new DigitalOcean provider driver, allowing users to create portable development environments that can be used on multiple platforms and take advantage of cloud services such as SSD servers, snapshots, and server resizing. This update simplifies the process of setting up development environments, increasing parity between development and production environments, and reducing setup time. With this new feature, developers can now utilize DigitalOcean's benefits without being limited to their local machine or VirtualBox.