News

Broadcom Aims VMware Cloud Foundation at Infrastructure Modernization

• By David Ramel
• 06/26/2024

Broadcom's latest update to its VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) private cloud offering is aimed at boosting infrastructure modernization, increasing developer productivity and enhancing security/resiliency.

Broadcom has come under fire from many fronts for its handling of VMware products following its acquisition of that company, as explained in articles like "Broadcom Announces Changes amid VMware Brouhaha, Critics Aren't Buying It."

Yesterday, Broadcom made more moves, including announcing VMware Cloud Foundation 5.2 and VMware vSphere Foundation 5.2, expected to ship during the company's third fiscal quarter of 2024.

The VCF update was announced in a news release where the company said advancements will primarily come along three fronts:

• Modernize Infrastructure: The new VCF Import capability allows seamless integration of existing vSphere and vSAN environments, optimizing resources and reducing costs. VCF also now supports petabyte-scale storage with vSAN Max and ESA stretched clusters, ensuring high availability. Additionally, VCF Edge offers an optimized configuration for scalable and cost-effective edge management.
• Cloud Experience for Developers: The latest VCF release enhances developer productivity with simplified application deployment, quick start templates, and advanced performance insights. It introduces Tanzu Kubernetes Grid (TKG) as an independent service, aligning with upstream Kubernetes versions for rapid updates. VCF networking improvements streamline collaboration and CI/CD pipelines.
• Security and Resilience: VCF now includes ESXi Live Patching for zero-downtime updates and VMware vDefend for enhanced lateral security. Dual DPU support provides increased reliability and protection, while vSAN Data Protection ensures easier recovery from data threats. Integrated VMware Avi Load Balancer with SDDC Manager simplifies lifecycle management.

For the upcoming VMware vSphere Foundation 5.2, meanwhile, Broadcom said it will deliver innovations including:

• Esxi Live Patching for faster updates with zero downtime.
• Easy access for developers to self-service infrastructure via the vSphere IaaS control plane and a Local Consumption Interface for infrastructure services like VM service and storage service.
• Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Service becomes an independent service, with asynchronous updates enabling customers to consume the latest upstream Kubernetes versions faster.
• Easier management of all vSphere Foundation components with a simplified console including global inventory, simplified diagnostics, centralized certificate management and unified licensing.
• Improved end user experience and security with single sign-on across all product components.

"The excitement and associated concerns surrounding GenAI and data security reinforce the need for private clouds," Broadcom quoted IDC research exec Dave McCarthy as saying. "Enterprises need to ensure that private corporate data does not find itself inside a public AI model, "How customers choose to build private clouds will be driven by the unique requirements of each organization, such as updating legacy infrastructure, advancing the needs of their developer community, or creating a more secure and reliable environment to support a new generation of AI/ML applications. VMware Cloud Foundation continues to evolve as a private cloud platform, and the latest innovations Broadcom is delivering should help customers of all sizes accelerate adoption."