VMware Cloud Foundation: Broadcom focuses on more openness

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Open hardware, open networking, and open source – it was with this triad that VMware presented news at the European edition of "VMware Explore on Tour" in Frankfurt/Main, aimed at making it easier for customers to bring the VCF private cloud stack into productive operation promptly.

With its Open Hardware Ecosystem Initiative Broadcom will, for example, it aims to simplify the previously rather complex certification of server systems for platform support. The manufacturer is thus expanding the existing VCF ReadyNode hardware certification program to allow server manufacturers to certify systems independently. This should eliminate bottlenecks and delays for customers in procuring suitable servers.

Faster Hardware Certification

For customers looking to set up an AI infrastructure with VCF 9.0, many features in the context of "Private AI" are intended to be included in the standard VCF functionality at no extra cost, such as extended hardware support for AMD. Customers should also be able to implement suitable hardware more easily thanks to the "VCF AI Readynodes" certification process, as server systems with new CPU or GPU generations are qualified as officially supported hardware more quickly. Server manufacturer Supermicro is set to lead the way here, being the first OEM partner to provide an AI-ReadyNode system.

For edge deployments in demanding industrial environments outside the classic data center, manufacturer SNUC intends to support the use of VCF on its small and robust "extremeEDGE" server systems.

Support for Cisco's Nexus One Fabric and SONiC

With a focus on "Open Networking," Broadcom also aims to simplify VCF implementation. In practice, this often involves a combination of EVPN and BGP, which can also be operated across manufacturers. The overall "Modern Private Cloud" package as an alternative to the major hyperscalers is the focus.

Broadcom is no longer emphasizing competition with Cisco and its ACI technology. On the contrary, VMware supports Cisco's Nexus One Fabric strategy, introduced in June 2025, with which Cisco customers can implement a unified VXLAN-EVPN infrastructure with NX-OS and Cisco ACI. The collaboration between VMware and Cisco to jointly support industry standards can be viewed positively from a customer perspective.

In addition to EVPN, Broadcom continues to support the open-source switch operating system SONiC (Software for Open Networking in the Cloud). According to VMware's Chief Product Officer Paul Turner, Broadcom also uses SONiC in its internal Broadcom Modern Private Cloud based on VCF.

As a third pillar of innovation, VMware was able to point out that its in-house Kubernetes Distribution VKS ("vSphere Kubernetes Service") has been certified by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) as one of the first AI-compliant Kubernetes distributions. In addition, the manufacturer emphasized its extensive activities in initiating new and supporting ongoing open-source projects in the Kubernetes environment.

VCF 9 "Launched with Great Momentum"

Overall, Broadcom considers version 9 of VCF, released in June, a success. Customer experiences with the new version have been positive; just over four months after its product introduction, the manufacturer can already point to over 600 VCF 9.0 implementations at major customers, of which over 40 percent are already in production. This is a remarkable achievement for a complex product with around 10,000 pages of documentation.

In an interview with iX, Paul Turner expressed considerable confidence: "VCF 9.0 has launched with great momentum – our customers are benefiting from a more modern and consistent operating model when building their data centers with the private cloud approach."

Bringing More VCF Functions to Customers

Indeed, the manufacturer is currently focusing heavily on the deeper adoption of VCF, as iX has learned from VMware partners such as SoftwareOne and CCP: Employees and partners of the manufacturer are not only measured by the number of licenses sold, but also by ensuring that the VCF-specific functions, which go far beyond classic vSphere, find their way into customer installations.

Only by ensuring that customers actually utilize VCF's powerful functions for simplified operations, automation, security, and Private AI can Broadcom justify the expected added value of VCF compared to the old, classic operating models with pure server virtualization. This is about whether the manufacturer's entire strategy since the acquisition will ultimately succeed – because the resistance and uncertainty in the market and within the partner ecosystem have been significant since the acquisition.

The mood among the 750 attendees – a large proportion of whom were also partners – was generally quite positive. The event in Frankfurt was scheduled for two full days – one day longer than comparable events in London or Paris. In November 2024, VMware owner Broadcom held the European edition of its in-house trade fair VMware Explore for the last time in Barcelona and announced that the event would be replaced by smaller local events.

(vbr)