The Private Cloud Renaissance: VMware Cloud Foundation Gets Smarter, Safer, and AI‑Ready

📌 TLDR

At VMware Explore 2025, Broadcom unveiled VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9.0, a fully integrated, AI-ready private cloud platform. Key features include bundled private AI services, built-in compliance tooling, GitOps integration, and support for sovereign and edge deployments. Broadcom claims VCF now outperforms public cloud in security and cost control. For SAM teams, this marks a shift toward unified licensing, embedded AI entitlements, and greater governance complexity in on-prem repatriated environments.

At VMware Explore 2025 in Las Vegas, Broadcom threw down the gauntlet, stating emphatically that private cloud now outperforms public cloud. This isn’t just hype. With VCF 9.0, VMware is pushing for a new era of unified, secure, and AI-native private infrastructure. Here’s what stood out, and why SAM and IT teams need to pay attention.

1. A Defiant Case for On‑Premises

Broadcom CEO Hock Tan opened the keynote with a challenge: don’t flee to public clouds like you did 10–15 years ago. Instead, he urged enterprises to trust VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) for better security, cost control, and infrastructure sovereignty.

“Most of you continue to be weighed down by legacy infrastructure, and you are afraid to move forward,” (…) The answer is not to run straight to public cloud like you did 10 to 15 years ago.”
He wants buyers to embrace Cloud Foundation “and stay on-prem.”

A survey noted during the event underscores the sentiment:

• 90% of IT professionals trust private cloud for security and compliance.
• 70% anticipate repatriating workloads back on-prem.

2. VCF 9.0: Unified, Integrated, and Built for AI

VCF 9.0 debuted not just as an upgrade, but as a fully-integrated private cloud platform:

• Private AI Services are now bundled at no extra charge. Think model repositories, agent builders, and blueprint templates for AI apps.
  
• Advanced Cyber Compliance Service offers automated governance, threat protection, and regulatory tooling for regulated industries.
  
• DevOps features include a unified console (compute, storage, network in one pane), S3 object storage, GitOps (Argo CD), Istio integration, and Tanzu enhancements.
  

This reinforces VCF as a strategic foundation, not just infrastructure, but embedded governance, AI, and modernization.

3. Infrastructure That Fits Your Needs

• VCF 9 operates across core, edge, and sovereign cloud environments, enabling flexibility without compromising control.
  
• Broadcom is porting VCF to Arm architecture, especially for energy-efficient, on-premises use cases, though full availability is expected around Q1 2026.
  

4. A Unified Cloud Strategy Without the Complexity

From a partner perspective, exploring the platform offered practical, technical insights, including how VCF 9 supports mixed workloads, Kubernetes, GPU management, and AI model orchestration.

Session topics like “VCF as the One Platform for Kubernetes, Containers, and VMs” and “Accelerating AI Workloads” emphasized its seamless hybrid operations.

What This Means for SAM and Licensing Teams

1. New Licensing Priorities
   With VCF positioning as a single SKU platform, SAM teams need clarity on licensing entitlements that span embedded AI, compliance services, and platform upgrades.
   
2. Compliant AI Enablement
   Private AI, especially with multi-tenant controls and governance built in, significantly shifts both licensing scope and audit considerations.
   
3. Regulatory Alignment
   Built-in compliance and cyber resilience reduce configuration complexity, but SAM must still map feature usage to licensing contracts to ensure accurate entitlements.
   
4. DevOps Integration
   GitOps and unified APIs demand modern governance and rightsizing of internal tooling, now extending beyond legacy VM management.
   
5. Ownership of Repatriated Workloads
   As workloads return on-prem, enterprises must adapt to managing consolidated license compliance across hybrid environments.

A Strategic Pivot, Not a Legacy Loop

VMware Explore 2025 revealed that private cloud isn’t retrograde, it’s renewed. VCF 9.0 embodies a modern private cloud for regulated, cost-conscious, AI-hungry enterprises.

For SAM leaders, the message is clear: this isn’t about tracing virtual machines, it’s about governing AI-powered infrastructure in one unified system. VCF 9 resets the foundation. Are your licensing strategies ready for the transformation?

Sources

• The Register, August 26, 2025 – Broadcom’s keynote on private cloud superiority and VCF expansion. Network World+4VMware Blogs+4itprotoday.com+4Network World+15The Register+15CRN+15bbntimes.com
• CRN, August 2025 – Highlights of the VCF 9 platform, private AI, and cybersecurity service launch. CRN+1
• VMware Cloud Foundation Blog, August 2025 – VCF 9 capabilities and customer momentum. CRN+8VMware Blogs+8VMware Blogs+8
• ItProToday, August 28, 2025 – VCF’s evolution into an AI-native private cloud platform. itprotoday.com
• Channel Futures, August 2025 – Expanding VCF and Tanzu for private cloud, AI, and compliance. Channel Futures