VMware Explore 2025 is taking place at the Venetian resort in Las Vegas once again. Today, the main keynote is taking place which is the time and place where the biggest announcements are released.
Stay up to date! Check out some of the announcements below:
1. VMware Cloud Foundation Becomes AI-Native
- Private AI Services built into VCF 9.0: VMware is now delivering Private AI as a standard part of VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 subscriptions. This includes services like GPU Monitoring, Model Store, Model Runtime, Agent Builder, Vector Database, and Data Indexing/Retrieval. Why does this matter for you and your organization? It enables you to run AI workloads securely and efficiently within your current private cloud stack that you are already familiar with.
- Intelligent Assist for VCF: An AI-driven support assistant (currently in tech preview) that will help diagnose and resolve issues faster, by quickly accessing Broadcom’s knowledge base for solutions, significantly reducing downtime. It will offer flexibility to use on-premises or cloud-hosted language models.
- My opinion: This is the right step to stop AI from being siloed. The fact that all the tools required to start a Private AI project are part of the core subscription means VMware is finally aligning with how enterprises are starting to adopt AI.
2. Tanzu Gets Smarter with Data Intelligence
- Tanzu Data Intelligence: VMware announced a new data lakehouse platform under the Tanzu brand. It brings together ingestion, processing, querying, and AI enablement into a single solution, tailored for multimodal data and generative AI workloads.
- Tanzu Platform 10.3: Also introduced, this release adds significant enhancements for AI model quotas and security controls.
- My opinion: This could be VMware’s chance to rebrand Tanzu beyond just Kubernetes orchestration and actually make it a player in data-driven AI architectures. Can we convince the Developers this is the right platform for them? We will see!
3. Advanced Cyber Compliance & Resilience for VCF
- VCF Advanced Cyber Compliance: This new VCF Advanced Service delivers automated compliance via integration with SaltStack, which offers secure patching, data engine images and continuous enforcement. It also supports automated cyber and data recovery using isolated “clean rooms” and push-button VM network isolation. Why does this matter for you and your organization? This is ideal for ransomware and disaster recovery use cases.
- Enhanced vDefend & NSX Advanced Load Balancer Security Features:
- vDefend Zero‑Trust for AI Workloads: A tech preview introduces lateral security for agentic AI workloads, securing AI’s new attack surfaces.
- NSX Advanced Load Balancer Innovations: New layered threat defenses bolster protection against web-level attacks.
- My opinion: This elevates the VCF stack as a compliance-ready platform which strengthens VMware’s case in regulated industries like finance and healthcare.
4. NVIDIA AI Hardware Integration
- Support for NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs: VMware Cloud Foundation will now support NVIDIA’s latest GPU architectures, including RTX PRO 6000 Server Edition and future Blackwell B200 GPUs to power AI model training and inferencing.
- High-Speed Networking and Storage: Support for NVIDIA ConnectX‑7 NICs and BlueField‑3 DPUs enables high-performance GPU workloads via DirectPath I/O, GPUDirect RDMA, and GPUDirect Storage without sacrificing enterprise-grade features like vMotion, HA, DRS, and live patching.
- My opinion: This aligns with VMware’s innovation in AI infrastructure. Enterprises that don’t want to build and manage everything on Kubernetes-only GPU farms can now leverage VCF to run AI workloads side-by-side with their regular workloads.
5. Canonical Partnership
- Canonical + VCF: VMware has expanded its partnership with Canonical to integrate Ubuntu’s cloud OS into VMware Cloud Foundation. This simplifies container-based and AI application deployment by improving developer efficiency, security, and cost.
- My opinion: This shows VMware understanding that it can’t do everything alone. Pairing VCF with Ubuntu strengthens its story in open source and AI workloads, which are critical for its adoption among developers.
Few reminders about previously announced VCF 9 features:
- Live vSphere Patching provides zero downtime without having to start any VM migrations for zero-day patches
- SecOps Dashboard provides real‑time visibility into security posture and governance policy compliance.
- VCF Ops console now provides a unified interface combining NSX, vSphere, vSAN and Security health in one pane.
- vSAN Global Deduplication (expand your current hardware investments, and lower your cost per TB)
- NVMe Memory Tiering which helps lower your overall hardware cost (Memory is more expensive than NVMe disks)
- Simple Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) creation with embedded NSX platform features
- NSX Enhanced Data Paths provide kernel-level and (optional) DPU offloading reducing east‑west latency
- Built‑in Cost Management offers chargeback/showback, TCO dashboards, predictive modeling and resource reclamation
- Cyber Live Recovery (DRaaS) offers isolated clean‑room infrastructure for ransomware and/or disaster recoveries
- Automated Drift Remediation detects configuration drift against golden baselines and offers simple remediations
- Native vSAN S3 Object Store native availability makes it a truly Unified platform with this latest addition
What was your favorite announcement? What are you looking forward to try for yourself the most?
Hope this was helpful, and that you enjoyed it!
Official VMware by Broadcom VMware Explore 2025 blogs/articles here
