As organizations modernize their IT infrastructure, they seek solutions that balance flexibility, scalability, security, performance, and control. VMware Cloud Foundation stands out as a leading choice for building modern private cloud infrastructure.
In this blog, we’ll explore why VMware Cloud Foundation stands out as the best choice for modern infrastructure.
Top 10 Essential Requirements for Modern Private Cloud and How VCF Meets Them
Let’s map some of the key requirements of modern private cloud infrastructure and how VCF satisfies those:
1. Infrastructure based on Cloud Operating Model:
An infrastructure should be based on a cloud operating model where organizations deliver IT services through automated infrastructure, DevOps practices, and consumption-based resources in order to minimize the IT overhead and accelerate innovation.
Key VCF Features:
- Automated deployment: VCF automates the deployment of vSphere, vSAN, NSX, VCF Automation and VCF Operations, reducing deployment time and complexity.
- Automated lifecycle management: VCF automates the installation and lifecycle management of all VCF components from bring-up and configuration to patching and upgrading, making it simple for the cloud admin to build and maintain VCF.
- Self-service infrastructure provisioning: With VCF Automation, application teams can provision infrastructure on their own in a self-service fashion without relying on a longer IT ticketing process.
2. Software-Defined Infrastructure:
Infrastructure resources like compute, networking, and storage should be abstracted and controlled by software, allowing for a more agile and adaptable setup.
Key VCF Features:
- An integrated private cloud platform: VMware Cloud Foundation delivers a comprehensive, integrated virtualization software for enterprise-class compute, networking, storage, management, and security packaged together into a single platform so that customers can deploy a private cloud infrastructure within hours instead of months and years.
3. Infrastructure delivering reduced TCO:
An infrastructure should help organization reduce their cost of infrastructure and operations
Key VCF Features:
- VCF reduces infrastructure costs with features like higher VM density, hyperconverged storage, integrated Kubernetes runtime, VPC networking, and more.
- And end to end automation, reduced hardware support costs, and reduced licensing costs lower operating expenses. Learn more- 12 ways VCF Lowers Your TCO, VCF TCO Infographic
4. Flexible and Scalable Infrastructure:
An infrastructure should be scalable and flexible to meet changing business needs.
Key VCF Features:
- Ultimate Flexibility: Through standardized building blocks and license portability across validated cloud endpoints (private, public, edge and CSP), VCF provides customers flexibility to deploy their applications wherever they want. License portability provides investment protection enabling on-prem investments to be utilized in supported partner cloud environments.
- Scalability: VCF allows for horizontal scaling by adding more servers to the cluster. Also, it supports vertical scaling by adding more storage devices to existing hosts without adding more compute resources. With workload domains and multiple clusters within the workload domain, it enables organizations to segment their infrastructure and scale specific workloads independently. Also, VCF enables cloud bursting, allowing organizations to extend their on-premises infrastructure to public clouds during peak demand.
5. Reliable, Secure and Resilient Infrastructure:
An environment should be highly available, secure and resilient with minimal downtime.
Key VCF Features:
- Robust security, compliance and governance: VCF provides out-of-the-box advanced security features such as microsegmentation, infrastructure hardening, data-at-rest and data-in-transit encryption, identity and access management (RBAC), data governance, advanced threat detection capabilities, and regulatory compliance checks and enforcement.
- Resilient Platform: VCF delivers a highly available, resilient platform with built-in features such as vSAN Data Protection, Stretched Clusters, vSphere HA etc. that ensures minimal service disruption and data loss during unforeseen events.
6. Support for modern workloads:
An infrastructure should support containers, microservices, AI/ML workloads etc. to deliver modern applications.
Key VCF Features:
- Powerful compute for traditional and modern workloads – VMware vSphere enables developers and DevOps teams to easily build, run, manage, protect, and secure traditional as well as next-gen applications.
- Natively integrated Kubernetes Runtime: vSphere Kubernetes Service (VKS) delivers native, CNCF compliant Kubernetes container orchestration integrated into any VCF environment, at no extra cost. The VKS container runtime in VCF ensures that the necessary building blocks for a cloud-native app platform are present and minimizes the integration complexity.
- Faster delivery of latest Kubernetes versions: With VKS as an independent service, VCF decouples Kubernetes releases from vCenter, enabling asynchronous updates aligned with upstream Kubernetes.
- Simple and secure GenAI deployment with VMware Private AI Foundation with NVIDIA: VMware Private AI Foundation with NVIDIA, an advanced service for VCF, enables enterprises to run RAG workflows, fine-tune and customize LLM models, and run inference workloads in their data centers, addressing privacy, choice, cost, performance and compliance concerns.
7. Seamless Integration into existing environment:
Key VCF Features:
- Seamless import of existing environments: VCF import capability converts and imports existing vSphere, vSAN, VMFS-FC, and NFS environments into VCF instance thus simplifying integration of existing vSphere, vSAN components into full stack VCF infrastructure.
8. Automation and Self-service Consumption:
Infrastructure provisioning and management should be automated and well-orchestrated to enhance operational efficiency, scalability, and end-to-end visibility.
Key VCF Features:
- Automated infrastructure with VCF Automation: VCF Automation, one of the core components of VCF, delivers a self-service infrastructure resources consumption experience to the consumers with capabilities such as self-service catalog, self-service IaaS, IaC etc. It also provides infrastructure management and governance capabilities to administrators.
9. Simplified management experience:
A simplified management experience is essential in modern infrastructure to reduce operational complexity, accelerate innovation and enhance efficiency.
Key VCF Features:
- Intelligent Operations: With VCF Operations included in the platform, VCF delivers comprehensive operational capabilities across compute, storage, and network such as performance optimization, capacity management, cost efficiency management, visibility and observability of infrastructure and operations, global configuration management, compliance, monitoring, troubleshooting, and log analytics, end-to-end network monitoring etc.
10. Consistent infrastructure and operations:
An infrastructure should be consistent and easy to extend and integrate across different endpoints such as private cloud, public cloud and edge.
Key VCF Features:
- Seamless extension: VCF delivers a private cloud platform that can be extended across on-premises, public clouds, partner clouds, sovereign clouds, edge and co-locations. With built-in availability of VCF Operations HCX, it enables seamless and efficient migration experience for moving workloads between different environments.
Start Transforming your Infrastructure with VMware Cloud Foundation
Not sure where to begin? Explore Executive Guide: Top 5 Reasons to Deploy Private Cloud Infrastructure and see how VMware Cloud Foundation can accelerate your infrastructure modernization journey.
Check out Private Cloud Modernization Program, where Broadcom supports you throughout your IT infrastructure transformation, no matter where you are. Reach out to your Broadcom representative to start building your future-proof infrastructure now.
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