VMware Cloud Foundation getting major update for AI

Broadcom is updating VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) with native S3-compatible object storage in vSAN, an automated AI Infrastructure Quickstart for Day 0 private AI cloud deployment, new compliance and configuration management, Virtual Private Cloud policy-based connectivity, and native disaster recovery, according to a blog post by Broadcom CMO and VP Product Marketing Prashanth Shenoy. Shenoy wrote that "IT infrastructure and operations leaders are at a tipping point that is driven by AI considerations, such as rising AI infrastructure costs, the new AI-accelerated security landscape, and the rapid advance of agentic AI workloads." The update also adds VMware vSphere Express for smaller environments and VMware Live Recovery with a secure clean room for cyber recovery.

VMware Cloud Foundation getting major update for AI Broadcom https://www.blocksandfiles.com/ai-ml/2024/08/27/hitachi-vantara-and-broadcom-unveil-updated-unified-compute-platform-rs/1608183 is updating VMware Cloud Foundation VCF to add native S3 object storage to vSAN, an automated start to private AI clouds, a set of security measures, and VMware vSphere Express for smaller environments. Prashanth Shenoy is Broadcom’s CMO and VP Product Marketing, and starts a blog https://blogs.vmware.com/cloud-foundation/2026/11/04/broadcom-vcf-portfolio-updates/ by saying: “IT infrastructure and operations leaders are at a tipping point that is driven by AI considerations, such as rising AI infrastructure costs, the new AI-accelerated security landscape, and the rapid advance of agentic AI workloads. This is forcing a fundamental rethink of the infrastructure where AI workloads should run, how to secure all workloads, and how to do all of that while meeting increasingly complex compliance and resiliency requirements.” He reckons “organizations need a cost-effective, secure, and governed path to enterprise AI and better defenses against AI-driven security threats. “ and so Broadcom is developing its VCF product portfolio to add” - AI Infrastructure Quickstart delivers an automated Day 0 deployment experience for customers to smoothly get started with Private AI Cloud. It accelerates AI workload readiness by automating foundational infrastructure and software setup through a streamlined vCenter plugin. By handling vCenter cluster deployment, Supervisor configuration, and VKS cluster provisioning, it drastically reduces Day-0 complexity. - vSAN Native S3-compatible Object Storage delivers native object storage capabilities to VCF, including for AI projects, cloud-native applications and backup and recovery workloads. It will have self-service provisioning through vSphere Supervisor or VCF Automation. - VCF infrastructure configuration management and compliance delivers automation and enforcement of VCF infrastructure components as part of VCF Operations. This enables customers to enhance the security posture of their VCF components such as VMware vCenter and VCF Storage, by shifting from reactive to proactive compliance management, as well as configuration drift detection and remediation. Admins can continuously monitor VCF component settings against industry benchmarks, including Payment Card Industry PCI and the VCF Security Baseline. - Virtual Private Cloud VPC policy-based connectivity enable platform engineers to create shared services, define workload isolation and security policies, and apply them consistently across environments, while developers consume network resources through a self-service model without waiting for manual approvals. This accelerates application delivery while maintaining governance and security guardrails. - Disaster recovery is a new native feature in VCF and VMware vSphere Foundation VVF that delivers enterprise-scale recovery with orchestration across thousands of workloads, enabling organizations to protect critical workloads and recover from unplanned downtime events. - VMware Live Recovery delivers disaster and cyber recovery capabilities for VMware workloads, natively integrated with VCF. It has a secure clean room to accelerate recovery through rapid iterations and enterprise-scale orchestration, with cost savings from streamlined operations, efficient use of infrastructure, and consolidation of multiple tools. - VMware Compliance and Configuration Management provides VM and container workload compliance and configuration management capabilities, including continuous compliance enforcement with automated remediation for workloads, helping organizations maintain secure settings at scale against compliance benchmarks such industry benchmarks and standards from Center for Internet Security CIS , Defense Information Systems Agency DISA , or a customer’s own custom standards and benchmarks. VMware vSphere Express delivers core compute virtualization capabilities for customers with up to 128 cores across all environments with a simplified experience. It includes: - ESX Standard - vCenter Standard - vSphere Distributed Switch with centralized network management and monitoring - vMotion: Live migration of running virtual machines with improved migration speed and efficiency - High Availability HA : Automated restart of failed virtual machines - vCenter Quick Patch: Low-impact, rapid patch management to maximize uptime - Zero-Trust Security: Built-in TPM 2.0 and vTPM 2.0 support Whether this will stem the flood of smaller VMware customers to Nutanix https://www.blocksandfiles.com/hci/2026/05/28/nutanixs-regular-revenue-rise-repeats/5247882 and Proxmox is open to question.Too little too late will be the response of already-migrated customers. Nutanix also seems to be moving faster than Broadcom in adding agentic and other AI facilities https://www.blocksandfiles.com/hci/2026/10/21/nutanix-makes-trio-of-agentic-ai-developments/5304456 to its software. Availability VMware Live Recovery, VMware Compliance and Configuration Management, and VMware vSphere Express are available now. The next VCF release, estimated to become GA in Q1FY27, should include AI Infrastructure Quickstart, vSAN Native S3-compatible Object Storage, VCF infrastructure configuration management and compliance, Virtual Private Cloud, and Disaster Recovery. Bootnotes Note that for customers in countries in the European Economic Area, vSphere Standard v8 and vSphere Enterprise Plus v8 will remain available for sale until October 31, 2027, and will have Extended Support included in any active subscriptions to those offerings until the earlier of the applicable subscription end date or October 31, 2028. Broadcom’s open-source VM API project has been accepted into the Cloud Native Computing Foundation CNCF Sandbox, marking a step towards a vendor-neutral Kubernetes API for managing virtual machines. Broadcom is also co-chairing a new Kubernetes Workload Conformance Working Group to help establish consistent standards across platforms, alongside announcing more than 20 newly validated partner solutions for VMware vSphere Kubernetes Service VKS .