VMware Explore 2025: Top 10 Product Announcements

1. VMware Private AI Services for VCF

At the forefront: Private AI Services are now standard in VCF 9.0. Scheduled for availability in Broadcom’s Q1 fiscal 2026, these services—ranging from GPU monitoring and model runtime to vector databases and agent builders—transform VCF into an AI‑native platform. The result? A unified environment for both AI and non‑AI workloads without extra licensing hurdles.

2. Tanzu Data Intelligence: Enterprise Lakehouse at Scale

Tanzu Data Intelligence makes its debut as VMware’s lakehouse platform—integrating ingestion, processing, querying, and AI‑enablement. With support for structured and unstructured data across environments, this low‑latency, enterprise-grade platform empowers analytics, AI applications, model training, and semantic searches—all at scale.

3. VCF Cyber Compliance Advanced Service

A major leap in cloud compliance: the Cyber Compliance Advanced Service brings automated compliance monitoring and full-stack infra remediation via SaltStack integrated into the VCF console. It also introduces secure VM network isolation, automated recovery workflows, and enhanced cyber‑resilience features to streamline audit readiness and ransomware recovery.

4. Model Runtime, MCP Support, Multi‑Tenant Models‑as‑a‑Service

VCF now enables flexible deployment of AI models across diverse hardware, AMD or NVIDIA GPUs—without refactor efforts via Multi‑Accelerator Model Runtime. Model Context Protocol (MCP) support brings governance for AI assistant integrations with external tools like Oracle, GitHub, ServiceNow, Slack, and more. Plus, Multi‑Tenant Models‑as‑a‑Service helps share AI models securely across business units, reducing cost and preserving isolation.

5. Tanzu Platform 10.3: Accelerating Enterprise AI Applications

With Tanzu Platform 10.3, VMware delivers robust operational control for GenAI app development. Highlights include:

• Fleet management and security dashboards,
• AI model quota controls,
• Vulnerability visualization via Tanzu Hub,
• Built‑in observability and service publishing in the platform marketplace—which helps developers expose apps as services.

6. AI Starter Kit for Tanzu

To lower the barrier for AI adoption, VMware introduced an AI Starter Kit for Tanzu. This toolkit helps teams quickly spin up AI‑ready environments with automation and how‑to guides—no full platform upgrade needed—simplifying early experimentation.

7. Revamped vDefend: Zero‑Trust AI Security

vDefend gets a powerful upgrade with:

• Zero‑trust lateral security around AI workloads,
• Automation workflows for segmentation,
• Firewall rule analysis,
• A new NDR sensor for enterprise‑wide threat visibility,
• Fileless malware detection via Antimalware Scan Interface (AMSI).

8. VCF Intelligent Assist: AI‑Powered Support

Enhancing support workflows, VCF Intelligent Assist is a new AI‑driven assistant built to access Broadcom’s knowledge base quickly—on-premises or cloud‑hosted—to reduce time to resolution and downtime.

9. Revamped Avi Load Balancer: WAF, mTLS, MCP Security

Avi Load Balancer innovations include:

• A Web Application Firewall assessment tool,
• Mutual TLS for client and server cryptography in Kubernetes traffic,
• Tech preview for securing MCP traffic with session persistence and authorization,
• Support for post‑quantum encryption—prepping enterprises for future‑proof security.

10. Native vSAN S3 Object Storage

vSAN adds native support for S3‑compatible object storage—letting developers store and retrieve unstructured data directly via vSAN, without extra hardware or licenses. This unified storage simplifies policies across block, file, and object storage and accelerates app delivery.

Expanded Ecosystem and Edge Capabilities

Beyond the top 10, VMware Explore 2025 showcased:

• Expanded partnership with Canonical, integrating Ubuntu Pro, chiseled containers, and GPU drivers into VCF for efficient, secure container deployment.
• Focus on edge and sustainability, including VMware Cloud Universal+, Tanzu Edge Platform, NSX+ enhancements, and sustainability tools for measuring workloads’ carbon footprints.

Why Do These Matter?

For IT and DevOps teams: 

VMware Explore 2025 delivered tools for faster AI app development, robust compliance workflows, simplified storage, and enhanced dev productivity—all within a unified private cloud.

For security and compliance leads: 

Across vDefend, Avi, and VCF services, zero‑trust, automated compliance, post‑quantum readiness, and rapid recovery unify defense strategies.

For channel partners and integrators: 

New opportunities emerge around AI‑ready cloud deployments, data platform services, compliance automation, developer enablement, and container efficiency.

Conclusion

VMware Explore 2025 firmly positions VMware Cloud Foundation as the core of enterprise private cloud evolution—capable of delivering secure, AI‑powered infrastructure, seamless app modernization, and robust compliance. The breadth of innovation—from AI services to lakehouse data platforms, from edge tooling to security—is a comprehensive roadmap for the modern private cloud era.

With these launches, VMware signals that AI isn’t just the future—it’s the infrastructure standard. And in that shift, VCF stands at the center, ready for mission-critical workloads across all industries.