From new cybersecurity, data and load-balancing features to completely new interfaces and advanced services, CRN breaks down the 10 biggest features and innovations inside Broadcom’s new VMware Cloud Foundation 9 platform that is now generally available.
Broadcom Tuesday unveiled the general availability of its new VMware Cloud Foundation 9 full-stack platform that is packed with innovation—from new vDefend security features and Avi Load Balancer integrations to advanced data services and improved cost transparency technology.
“With VMware Cloud Foundation 9, we are again raising the bar for the modern private cloud by vastly simplifying the deployment, operations and developer experience of the cloud,” said Krish Prasad, senior vice president and general manager of Broadcom’s VMware Cloud Foundation Division, in a statement.
The new VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9 platform aims to provide a streamlined experience for building, operating and securing private clouds across on-premises data centers, in hyperscaler and VMware Cloud Service provider clouds, and at the edge.
[Related: Why Broadcom’s Stock Hit An All-Time High: Analysis]
VCF 9 delivers a unified platform that supports traditional, modern and AI applications with consistent operations, governance and controls across the private cloud environment.
In addition, several new advanced services for VCF 9 aim to enable customers to drive innovation in their private cloud environments.
“Most enterprises are now looking to the private cloud for running both traditional mission-critical and new AI and containerized applications. VCF 9 is the ideal platform for running these modern applications, enabling our customers to be more innovative, efficient, resilient and secure,” Prasad said.
Some of the key new innovations for VCF 9 include a new SecOps dashboard and Quick Start App, enhanced vDefend and Avi Load Balancer innovation, as well as a new Private AI Foundation service platform developed with Nvidia.
VCF 9 is now available for VMware partners through authorized Broadcom distributors.
Here are the 10 biggest new features, integrations and services for VMware Cloud Foundation 9 that every customer and partner needs to know about.
VMware vDefend Revamped For VCF 9
VMware vDefend is a software-defined, hypervisor-integrated, lateral security offering purpose-built to protect every VCF private cloud workload.
New innovations for VCF 9 include the ability to implement vDefend at the Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) level, applying lateral security policies that are isolated and managed per tenant.
Another new vDefend innovation for VFC 9 is that infrastructure teams can now create centralized firewall policies for walled garden zones for application deployments. This means application owners can be delegated to create fine-grained policies within these zones.
In addition, existing vDefend deployments outside VCF can now be imported into VCF 9, preserving policies and reducing transition efforts as well as accelerating migrations to the full-stack VCF platform.
Finally, vDefend in VCF 9 includes global IDS/IPS policy management for consistent threat defense policies across multisite VCF deployments.
New vDefend Advanced Service
VMware launched a new Advanced Service offering for vDefend that provides built-in threat detection and response, zone- and application-level micro-segmentation, distributed lateral security, reduced attack surface, and zero-trust enforcement across VCF environments.
One Interface For Private Cloud Operations
The new VCF 9 introduces a unified interface for cloud administrators, offering a holistic view of private cloud operations.
Its new Quick Start App aims to reduce setup time and complexity, while integrated cost management and policy enforcement enable immediate compliance and operational efficiency.
VCF 9’s scalable fleet management allows administrators to plan, schedule and execute upgrades across clusters efficiently.
Centralized identity and access management—such as single sign-on, password policies and certificates—enable consistency across environments.
Lastly, advanced analytics help administrators understand workload behavior, enabling targeted responses for security and performance optimization.
Avi Load Balancer Integrations With VCF 9
VMware Avi Load Balancer provides plug-and-play load balancing for VCF private cloud with a one-platform approach along with a single declarative API for infrastructure admins and developers.
Now with new VCF 9 integrations, Avi provides automated life-cycle management of Avi controllers through VCF Operations, as well as consistent workload support through integrations with vSphere Supervisor control plane for load-balancing VMs and vSphere Kubernetes Service.
In addition, Avi Load Balancer with VCF 9 lets developers consume load balancing as code and as self-service via VCF Automation integrations with built-in service catalog automation. It also includes simplified virtual private cloud (VPC) support for deployments including centralized transit gateway and vCenter.
New Avi Load Balancer Advanced Service
VMware’s new Advanced Service for Avi Load Balancer provides plug-and-play load- balancing services for VM and Kubernetes workloads with built-in global server load balancer, application health and latency analytics and web application firewall. With VCF 9.0, Avi Load Balancer now supports load balancing as self-service, streamlined operations and life-cycle management.
Unified VM, Container And Kubernetes
Broadcom said VCF 9 takes a significant leap forward as a unified platform for traditional, cloud-native and AI applications.
The embedded vSphere Kubernetes Service (VKS) enables both VMs and containers to be treated equally. This allows customers to build, deploy and run Kubernetes and virtualized workloads together and eliminates complex DevOps stacks and integrations.
Developers can immediately begin building and deploying, while IT maintains security and consistency.
Lastly, VFC 9 enables a single interface and operational model that manages VM-based applications, cloud-native workloads, AI/ML applications and traditional enterprise databases.
Enhanced Cost Transparency
VCF 9 offers cost predictability and transparency advantages over public cloud, the company said.
New insight extends beyond infrastructure, incorporating software licensing, operational expenses and data center costs—providing a holistic TCO view.
In addition, built-in analytics enable predictive cost modeling for effective infrastructure planning and forecasting, helping organizations avoid unforeseen financial challenges.
Automated resource optimization reclaims underutilized capacity to enhance workload efficiency and prevent unnecessary infrastructure sprawl.
Finally, detailed showback and chargeback data grounded in resource allocation provide a clear return on infrastructure investment.
New Data Services Manager Advanced Service
The company’s new Data Services Manager (DSM) is an advanced data service for VCF that provides enterprise support for PostgreSQL and MySQL.
With new DSM integration with VCF Automation, IT teams can deliver Database as a Service, while additional DSM enhancements increase the operational efficiency for large database fleet management.
For data service policies, infrastructure admins can now configure pre-created policies for automated provisioning, ensuring governance, compliance and consistency.
The new service is now in preview with Microsoft SQL Server.
VMware Private AI Foundation with Nvidia
With the launch of VCF 9, the company formed a VMware Private AI Foundation service platform with Nvidia.
This joint AI platform service from Broadcom and Nvidia offers improved cybersecurity with air-gap support as well as GPU-as-a-Service with multitenancy support for AI workloads.
The new offering also provides vGPU profile visibility to eliminate manual tracking along with improved utilization with enhanced GPU and vGPU monitoring capabilities.
Lastly, it provides simplified model usage and scalability with Model Runtime and more efficient creation of AI Agents with Agent Builder Service.
New Live Recovery Advanced Service
VMware’s Live Recovery offering is for managing cyber and disaster recovery across VCF deployments.
With VCF 9, Live Recovery now delivers increased data sovereignty through an on-premises isolated clean room for cyber recovery that’s available as a VMware Validated Solution. Customers can recover to a VCF isolated clean room on-premises or an existing cloud option.
It also has up to 200 immutable snapshots per VM enabled by native replication and more efficient scaling through the ability to expand storage independently of compute with vSAN storage clusters.
Frictionless Cloud Consumption Experience
VCF 9 offers a unified interface for platform and development teams, simplifying infrastructure service delivery and consumption.
Platform teams can organize, provision and manage tenant resources with granular control.
More secure, role-based access is enabled through streamlined administration of both admin and tenant identities.
Compliance across all deployments is maintained by built-in governance policies, while preconfigured blueprints simplify provisioning, lessen manual tasks and guarantee compliant infrastructure. Developers also gain access to automated and elastic self-service IaaS services.
Security And Sovereignty Boost
VCF 9 is engineered to provide data control, compliance and resilience to empower IT operations tackling regulatory complexities.
A key VCF 9 feature is the new SecOps dashboard, offering a quick view of platform security and data controls, along with integrated compliance policies. Regulatory guardrails facilitate consistent governance.
VCF 9’s support for the latest confidential computing technologies from AMD and Intel help enable organizations to leverage the newest generation of secure enclaves, encrypted memory and attestation capabilities. This allows teams to deploy confidential workloads across heterogeneous infrastructure while maintaining consistent security policies and operational workflows.
