Government-Ready NVIDIA AI Enterprise Containers Now Available for Customers of VMware Private AI Foundation with NVIDIA

We’re excited to announce a major milestone in our mission to bring secure, enterprise-grade AI to regulated industries. Starting today, VMware Private AI Foundation with NVIDIA is part of the NVIDIA AI Factory for Government reference design. This reference design is based on NVIDIA accelerated compute and NVIDIA AI Enterprise, and now includes government-ready software that meets security requirements for use within high assurance deployments. With this new reference design, VMware Private AI Foundation with NVIDIA customers can deploy GenAI workloads more securely to meet the requirements of regulated industries.

Why This Matters

Generative AI is reshaping industries; however, government agencies, defense, healthcare and financial institutions face unique challenges:

Sensitive data can be locked in secure enclaves governed by strict compliance frameworks such as FedRAMP, FISMA, and NIST 800-53.
Deploying Generative AI (GenAI) agents (e.g., research assistants, chatbots) in these environments requires bespoke engineering, manual hardening, and non-repeatable processes.

These barriers prevent regulated users from realizing the full benefits of GenAI and agentic AI. To support AI deployments for the public sector and other regulated industries, the NVIDIA AI Factory for Government reference design which includes the latest NVIDIA AI Enterprise release, provides guidance to deploy AI workloads. It is:

Built on STIG hardened configurations and requirements for containers
Uses FIPS validated cryptographic modules and related capabilities
Is subject to ongoing monitoring and remediation of vulnerabilities including CISA KEVs

By leveraging this secure, performant reference design through VMware Private AI Foundation with NVIDIA, customers can confidently harness the power of AI to achieve their goals faster and more securely.

VMware Private AI Foundation with NVIDIA, a joint AI platform between Broadcom and NVIDIA, 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. Built and run on the industry-leading private cloud platform, VMware Cloud Foundation, VMware Private AI Foundation with NVIDIA includes the NVIDIA AI Enterprise, NVIDIA NIM inference microservices for the latest AI models, including NVIDIA Nemotron models and leading community models, as well as NVIDIA Blueprints.

Customers demanding the highest levels of security and governance can take advantage of this new capability in NVIDIA AI Enterprise containers to deploy GenAI workloads on VCF using VMware Private AI Foundation with NVIDIA. These include:

U.S. federal agencies and government contractors
Healthcare and financial institutions with strict data governance
Sovereign cloud deployments across Europe and other regions
Research organizations working with sensitive datasets

Whether deployed in a private data center, sovereign data center, or hybrid cloud, this stack is ready for mission-critical AI.

What It Enables

With this new reference design targeted for Government, customers can now confidently deploy:

Agentic Research agents that analyze sensitive internal data
Chatbots that interact with secure knowledge bases
Predictive models for regulated decision-making

All while helping to maintain compliance with FedRAMP, FIPS, and STIG standards.

STIG & FIPS Capabilities in VCF 9.0

VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 delivers robust security and compliance features that align with U.S. federal standards, making it ideal for regulated industries deploying GenAI.

STIG Compliance

Automated Hardening: VCF 9.0 includes STIG documentation and automation tools to scan, harden, and validate VMware components against DISA STIG requirements.
Artifacts & Reporting: Our publicly available automation resources include generation of compliance reports and checklists to support accreditation workflows.
Coverage: Applies to VMware vSphere, VMware vCenter, NSX, Data Services Manager, VCF Operations, SDDC Manager, VCF Automation and other infrastructure components.

FIPS 140 Support

Built-In Cryptographic Compliance: VCF components—including ESXi, vCenter, NSX, HCX, VCF Operations, VCF Automation and Data Services Manager—support FIPS 140 cryptography by default. VCF Private AI services will support FIPS in a future release.
SDDC Manager: In VCF 9.0, FIPS mode is enabled by default, ensuring consistent compliance across deployments.
Secure by Design: Components are either inherently FIPS-compliant or require minimal configuration to meet standards. VMware vSphere Kubernetes Service (VKS) include improved security features, such as support for upstream-conformant Kubernetes releases and hardened cluster configurations.

These capabilities help enable customers to deploy VMware Private AI Foundation with NVIDIA in environments requiring FedRAMP High, DoD IL5, or sovereign cloud compliance, without compromising performance or scalability.

Stay tuned for more updates as we continue to democratize GenAI for every industry.

Ready to get started on your AI and ML journey? Check out these helpful resources:

For questions or to get involved in customer enablement, reach out to your VMware account team.

Discover more from VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) Blog

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.