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Is VMware's Private Cloud The Antidote To The Public Cloud Itch?
Hock Tan is painting a picture of a private cloud with VMware Cloud Foundation 9. Is this enough to stop the tide of the migration to the cloud? Broadcom is hoping so.
The News
At VMware Explore 2025 in Las Vegas, Broadcom announced new security innovations for VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF), positioning the platform to address mounting cybersecurity and regulatory compliance challenges. The announcement, which centered on VCF Advanced Cyber Compliance and new features for VMware vDefend and VMware Avi Load Balancer, is designed to enhance security for customers in highly regulated industries. This suite of new capabilities provides a more unified approach to infrastructure hardening, threat prevention, and cyber recovery. Find out more by clicking here to read the press release.
Key Highlights:
Highlights
- Broadcom has introduced VCF Advanced Cyber Compliance, a new service focused on automating compliance enforcement and simplifying cyber recovery for private cloud environments.
- New capabilities in VMware vDefend are designed to protect emerging AI workloads with a Zero Trust lateral security approach and enhanced threat detection for fileless malware.
- VMware Avi Load Balancer receives forward-looking security updates, including support for post-quantum cryptography and end-to-end mutual TLS for Kubernetes traffic.
- The announcement frames VCF as an "AI-native platform," integrating new AI services directly into the core infrastructure to simplify and secure AI model deployment.
- This strategic move reflects a broader effort to differentiate the private cloud as a secure, cost-effective, and sovereign alternative to public cloud providers for AI-driven workloads.
Analyst Take
My view is that this set of announcements from Broadcom at VMware Explore 2025 is less about groundbreaking new technology and more about a calculated, cohesive strategy. It's an intelligent move to integrate and productize existing and emerging capabilities to address the very real market pain points of security and compliance, especially for large, regulated enterprises. The narrative is clear: Broadcom is architecting VCF as a single, trusted private cloud platform that can be a genuine alternative to the public hyperscalers, particularly for customers who demand greater control, data sovereignty, and predictable costs. The company is leaning into a key advantage of the on-premises private cloud—its inherent ability to offer a more consolidated, "single pane of glass" for management and security. By integrating these services directly into VCF, Broadcom is aiming to eliminate the complexities and vulnerabilities that come from stitching together disparate point solutions.
The updates, while seemingly a collection of different features, tell a singular story. They're about embedding security so deeply into the platform that it becomes a default, not an afterthought. For instance, the new VCF Advanced Cyber Compliance service is an acknowledgment that manual compliance checks are no longer scalable or reliable. Automating this process via VCF SaltStack is a direct response to that reality. Similarly, the focus on cyber and data recovery to an isolated "clean room" is a recognition that breaches are inevitable. It's no longer just about prevention; it's about making recovery as quick and seamless as possible. This approach aims to deliver a level of resilience that customers can rely on even in the face of sophisticated ransomware attacks.
The most forward-looking aspect of this announcement is its focus on securing artificial intelligence. The new features for VMware vDefend and Avi Load Balancer, such as Zero Trust lateral security for agentic AI workloads and security for Model Context Protocol (MCP) traffic, are designed to address the new and evolving attack surfaces created by generative AI systems. Broadcom's recognition that these dynamic, multi-component systems require specialized security is a smart move that positions them at the forefront of a critical market shift.
What was announced
Broadcom has introduced several key product features and functionalities to bolster the VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) platform. The primary announcement is VCF Advanced Cyber Compliance, a new service designed to provide continuous compliance enforcement, automated cyber and data recovery, and enhanced platform security. This service aims to deliver automated monitoring and desired state remediation at scale using VCF SaltStack capabilities. It is architected to enable automated cyber and disaster recovery to isolated, on-premises VCF "clean rooms" with push-button VM network isolation to enable rapid recovery from disruptions. This functionality also includes integrated validation tools to identify and clean both fileless and file-based malware strains.
The company also unveiled updates to VMware vDefend, an advanced service for VCF. The new features include a tech preview for Zero Trust lateral security specifically for agentic AI workloads, which are growing in complexity and creating new attack surfaces. This is complemented by automation-driven workflows to accelerate Zero Trust implementation and a new Network Detection and Response (NDR) sensor for comprehensive, data center-wide threat visibility. The solution also includes advanced capabilities for fileless malware defense by integrating with the Antimalware Scan Interface (AMSI) to intercept malicious scripts before they execute.
Finally, VMware Avi Load Balancer has received security enhancements. These updates are designed to future-proof customer security and improve application delivery. The key innovations include support for Post-quantum Cryptography (PQC), which is designed to provide quantum-resistant cryptographic algorithms to secure data in transit. The Avi Load Balancer will also now support Mutual Authentication for TLS (mTLS) for Kubernetes environments, and it will feature a built-in Web Application Firewall (WAF) assessment tool that allows administrators to evaluate and progressively enable WAF protection.
Looking Ahead
The VMware security announcements at Explore 2025 mark a significant moment in Broadcom’s strategy. They are not simply adding features; they are articulating a vision of a comprehensive, secure, and sovereign private cloud. The key trend that I am going to be looking out for is how well Broadcom can execute on this vision, especially in a market dominated by the allure of the public cloud, and alternatives such as Nutanix and K8S options such as Red Hat OpenShift. The announcements today show a clear path to providing a compelling alternative. Broadcom is making the case that for mission-critical, highly regulated, and data-intensive workloads—especially those leveraging AI—the private cloud on VCF can offer a superior combination of security, compliance, and cost predictability.
When you look at the market as a whole, the announcements position Broadcom to compete more directly with hyperscalers, not just on infrastructure but on the value-added security and governance layer. The focus on securing emerging agentic AI workloads and integrating services like post-quantum cryptography is highly strategic. It demonstrates a sophisticated understanding of the evolving threat landscape and positions the company as a thought leader in a space that many competitors are still trying to navigate. My perspective is that this suite of capabilities could be a strong differentiator for VCF, especially for large organizations that cannot compromise on security or compliance. Going forward, I am going to be closely monitoring how the company performs on securing enterprise AI adoption. This is a novel and critical use case, and Broadcom's ability to demonstrate real-world success here will be a key indicator of its long-term viability in this competitive market.
Steven Dickens | CEO HyperFRAME Research
Regarded as a luminary at the intersection of technology and business transformation, Steven Dickens is the CEO and Principal Analyst at HyperFRAME Research.
Ranked consistently among the Top 10 Analysts by AR Insights and a contributor to Forbes, Steven's expert perspectives are sought after by tier one media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal and CNBC, and he is a regular on TV networks including the Schwab Network and Bloomberg.