VMware Explore 2026 is approaching fast. Thousands of infrastructure engineers, architects, and platform teams will gather at The Venetian Convention and Expo Center in Las Vegas, August 31 – September 3, 2026, and the window to secure the sessions, labs, and certification opportunities you want is closing. The Private Cloud Outlook 2026, based on a global survey of 1,800 IT decision-makers, frames the stakes: 56 percent of organizations are already running or planning production AI inferencing on private cloud, 62 percent of IT leaders are very or extremely concerned about AI infrastructure costs, and the top skills gap in enterprise IT is AI infrastructure and operations, cited by 40 percent of respondents. Explore is where practitioners close those gaps in a week.
The event has evolved into a practitioner-first experience: curated technical training, accelerated certification pathways, and in-person access to the engineers and architects who build the technology. Here’s how to make the most of it.
First Things First: Get Registered
Register today. The earlier you lock in, the more time you have to build your schedule in the VMware Explore 2026 Content Catalog before popular sessions fill. Every attendee with a Full Event Pass receives a complimentary VMware Certified Advanced Professional (VCAP) exam voucher to use onsite, a meaningful return on your registration investment before you factor in anything else.
VMware Explore 2026 runs August 31 – September 3, 2026 at The Venetian Convention and Expo Center in Las Vegas.
Sessions Worth Putting on Your Calendar
I’ve pulled together the VCF division sessions I’d prioritize. They cover the problems practitioners are navigating right now: production AI on private cloud, hardware constraints, security posture, and Kubernetes at scale. The Private Cloud Outlook 2026 puts this in context: 43 percent of organizations repatriating workloads are moving AI training, LLMs, and inference from public to private cloud, a category that didn’t exist in last year’s study. Start with the sessions closest to where your environment is today.
AI strategy and infrastructure readiness
- VCF 9.1 – Most Cost-Effective, Secure Platform for Production AI (CLOB1276LV): The GM session with Krish Prasad and Sabina Anja covering the economics and security architecture behind VCF as the foundation for production AI.
- Business Impact of Agentic AI: A Customer Fireside Chat (CLOP1277LV): I’m moderating this one. Customers running agentic AI workloads share what they’ve learned, including what failed before they got it right.
- Why VCF Is the Best Private Cloud Platform for Agentic AI Workloads (CLOB1244LV): Ramkumar Venketaramani and Himanshu Singh on the architectural case for VCF in AI deployments.
- Defending Against AI-Powered Threats (CLOB1827LV): Yoomi Hong and Bob Plankers on what frontier model deployment actually looks like inside an enterprise private cloud.
- Platform Engineering 2.0: Building the AI-Native Foundation with VCF (CLOB1507LV): Pankaj Gupta and Dilpreet Bindra on what platform engineering means in practice when 80 percent of enterprises now have a platform team and 57 percent are prioritizing AI capabilities in existing apps.
Getting more from VCF
- Unlock the Future: Transitioning to VMware Cloud Foundation (CLOT1136LV): Kyle Gleed and Jared Burns with a practical upgrade roadmap whether you’re mid-transition or still planning.
- Conquer the 2026 Hardware Crisis: VCF 9.1 Optimization Strategies (CLOB1266LV): Sandeep Byreddy and Junchi Zhang on extracting more performance from constrained hardware.
- How VMware vSphere Kubernetes Service Changes the Game: Running Containers and VMs on a Single Platform (CLOB1241LV): Jay Thontakudi and Himanshu Singh on how vSphere Kubernetes Service resolves the containers-vs-VMs false choice.
- Hardening and Securing VMware Cloud Foundation (CLOT1184LV): Bob Plankers and Ken Werneburg with a security hardening blueprint for VCF, including zero-trust and regulatory guidance.
- Optimizing AI – From Model Requirements to GPU Consumption on VCF 9.1 (INVT1225LV): Frank Denneman and Shawn Kelly on GPU resource management within VCF as AI workloads scale.
Go Deep in the Hands-on Labs
VMware Hands-on Labs give you the practice time that sessions can’t. Four formats are available this year.
Expert-led Workshops are developed and delivered by the subject matter experts who built the labs, with full admin access to a live environment. Registration fills fast; reserve your spots early. Standby seats are available for drop-ins onsite.
Register for Expert-led Workshops
Self-paced Labs are available on-demand with no prior registration. VMware product experts are stationed throughout the room to answer your questions as you work.
Browse the Self-paced Labs Catalog
The Hands-on Labs Tour and Command Center Wall is one of the more valuable experiences at Explore. The 30-to-45-minute tour takes you behind the scenes with the infrastructure admins and performance teams who run the event’s operational backbone. The centerpiece is the Command Center Wall: 12 screens showing real-time cloud deployment status, capacity utilization, and event monitoring; it’s a working demonstration of VCF at scale. No registration required; tours depart at 10:00 AM and 3:00 PM daily, check in at the Welcome Desk on Level 3 of the Venetian, 10 minutes before departure.
The Odyssey Tournament puts your skills against a live leaderboard. Compete in a gamified lab tournament built around real-world technical challenges and see how you rank against some of the strongest practitioners in the field.
Get Certified at Explore
The Private Cloud Outlook 2026 identifies AI infrastructure and operations as the top skills shortage in enterprise IT at 40 percent, with Kubernetes operations close behind at 37 percent. The VCF certification tracks are built to close exactly those gaps.
Broadcom offers five VMware Certified Advanced Professional (VCAP) certifications for VMware Cloud Foundation, covering vSphere Kubernetes Service (VKS), Automation, Operations, Storage, and Networking. These are for practitioners who have completed the VMware Certified Professional (VCP) level and are ready to move from executing blueprints to designing enterprise solutions. Senior private cloud professionals with advanced certifications command an average salary of $190,000.
Your Full Event Pass already includes a complimentary VCAP exam voucher. Use the labs during the week to reinforce your skills, sit the exam before you leave, and walk out of Las Vegas with both the knowledge and the credential.
LEARN MORE ABOUT VCF CERTIFICATIONS
Make Every Day Count
Register now, lock in your sessions before they fill, sign up for Expert-led Workshops early, and map your certification path before you land. VMware Explore 2026 is built for the practitioners who run enterprise private cloud, and the most important infrastructure decisions of the next 12 months will be made by people who showed up prepared.
We’ll see you in Las Vegas.
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