VMware Cloud on AWS: What’s New (December 2025)

Updated: 12/02/2025

At Broadcom, we are focused on helping customers modernize their infrastructure, improve resiliency, and simplify operations – without adding complexity for their teams to manage. Over the past few months, we’ve released several updates to make VMware Cloud on AWS (VMC) more flexible and easier to use.  It’s easy to miss the latest updates on our release notes, so we want to use this opportunity to highlight some of the most recent feature releases. 

Our latest features provide enterprise customers more cost-efficient resilience with non-stretched secondary clusters and improved scale-down, clearer operational insights via a redesigned user interface, an improved VMC Sizer, and new Host Usage APIs, and continued product enhancements through HCX 4.11.3.

Here’s a look at what’s new.

Optimize Your SDDC Deployments: Stretched Cluster Enhancements

When you deploy a Software Defined Datacenter (SDDC) in VMC, you are given the choice of either a standard or a stretched SDDC deployment. While a standard cluster is deployed in a single AWS availability zone (AZ), a stretched cluster offers improved availability by deploying the SDDC across three AWS availability zones. Two of the availability zones are selected for the instance deployments and the third hosts the vSAN witness component. 

Because SDDCs in stretched clusters deploy hosts in two AWS availability zones, they require customers to size at two to one for their resource needs. This can be cost prohibitive for workloads that don’t require high availability. Additionally, once stretched clusters have been scaled beyond six hosts, they were previously unable to scale back down. To improve both of these experiences, the VMC team has introduced Non-Stretched Secondary Clusters in Stretched Cluster SDDCs and Improved Scale-Down Options for Stretched Clusters. 

Non-Stretched Secondary Clusters in Stretched SDDCs

Previously, all clusters in a stretched SDDC were stretched across two AZs. With this update, only the primary cluster must be stretched, while secondary clusters now have the option to be deployed in a single AZ. In a Stretched cluster, hosts must be deployed uniformly and therefore the minimum increment is two. But in a Non-Stretched secondary cluster, host additions can be made in increments of one allowing you to increase the deployed host count in only the specific AZ where hosts are required. 

Some key benefits include:

• Provides the benefits of both stretched and non-stretched clusters in the same SDDC.
• Enables single-AZ host expansion in increments of one in non-stretched clusters.
• Lowers the cost for workloads that do not require stretched-cluster availability, including test and/or development workloads where high availability is not necessary.
• Supports application architectures with native replication at the application level. These can be deployed to two independent Non-Stretched Secondary Clusters.

VMC supports stretched clusters for applications requiring cross-AZ resilience. With SDDC 1.24v5, customers gain flexibility in how their clusters are deployed and scaled. Non-stretched clusters can only be deployed in one of the two AWS availability zones where the stretched cluster hosts reside, and this feature is only available for SDDCs at version 1.24v5 or later. Additionally, the SLA for a non-stretched cluster is different than for a stretched cluster because it lacks the high availability of a stretched cluster.

When planning for new SDDC deployments, consider deploying a Stretched Cluster SDDC to get the benefits of both high availability and optimized workload deployments.

Improved Scale-Down Options for Stretched Clusters

Previously, stretched clusters could not be scaled down below six hosts (three in each availability zone). ​​You can now scale down your cluster from six or more hosts to as few as four hosts (with two in each availability zone) or even two hosts (with one in each availability zone), depending on resource availability and other considerations. This gives you greater control over your infrastructure and helps to optimize costs based on your needs. 

Key use cases:

• If your workload usage has reduced over time and you need to scale down your stretched cluster based on current resource utilization.
• If you need to scale down a stretched cluster that was previously scaled up to six or more hosts during a time of peak demand, and the higher resource requirements are no longer necessary.
• You have recently converted your clusters from i3.metal to i4i.metal or i3en.metal instance types and no longer require the number of hosts previously deployed. This feature will enable you to cost-effectively scale your cluster down to reduce the number of hosts to match your required consumption. Newer instance types can operate in a smaller footprint while delivering equivalent or better performance.

However, there are a few important considerations to keep in mind before scaling down a stretched cluster. If your primary cluster uses Large management appliances, you’ll need to maintain at least six hosts (three per availability zone). For clusters with custom CPU configurations set to eight, the minimum cluster size is four hosts (two per availability zone). Additionally, scaling down isn’t possible if your cluster is already at or near its resource thresholds or if it would violate any custom policies you’ve set. 

Ready to optimize? Review your current configuration, check it against the guidelines above, and you’ll be all set to right-size your stretched cluster for maximum efficiency.

Take Control of Your Data: New Host Usage Report API 

We’re excited to announce the Host Usage Report API, giving you programmatic access to your host usage data. Now you can retrieve daily host usage reports for any date range and filter by region, instance type, SKU, and other attributes—all through a simple API.

Use this data to analyze host usage trends, optimize costs, and integrate usage metrics directly into your existing reporting tools and dashboards. The Host Usage Report API supports standard query parameters including sort and filter operations, giving you the flexibility to retrieve exactly the data you need.

The above image is a sample output of the API. You can automate this to input data into the analytics tool of your choice. Give it a try today!

Product Enhancement: HCX version 4.11.3 Now Available for VMC

We’re pleased to announce that VMware HCX version 4.11.3 is now available for VMware Cloud on AWS, and it comes with some important updates you’ll want to know about.

What’s New in HCX 4.11.3?

This maintenance release brings essential fixes and enhancements across datapath, system updates, and overall operations to help you run more smoothly. For a complete breakdown of all the improvements, check out the official HCX Release Notes. HCX version 4.11.3 extends support until October 11, 2027, giving you long-term stability and peace of mind. We strongly encourage all customers to upgrade to version 4.11.3 as soon as possible, since older versions will no longer be supported. 

If you’re setting up HCX for the first time, VMware Cloud on AWS automatically deploys version 4.11.3. For existing deployments, 4.11.3 is now the only available target version for upgrades. Need help getting started? Learn how to activate HCX and how to upgrade HCX in VMware Cloud on AWS.

Please Note: WAN Optimization is retired! The WAN optimization feature is no longer available in this release. Before upgrading, you’ll need to remove all WAN-OPT appliances from your Service Meshes and compute profiles. For detailed guidance on WAN-OPT removal, please review HCX no longer supports WANOPT from the 4.11.3 release and the HCX version 4.11.3 Upgrade documentation. 

Start planning your HCX upgrade to version 4.11.3 today!

Improved Experience: Redesigned VMware Cloud on AWS UI

VMware Cloud on AWS now features an updated user interface with a more streamlined layout, faster navigation, and improved consistency across the platform. The new experience is available today at https://vmc.broadcom.com. We’re excited about these new interface changes and expect them to improve your overall experience.

If you haven’t logged into the VMC Console recently, login and give the new experience a try today!

Improved Sizing Recommendations: VMC Sizer & Cluster Conversion Updates

We’re excited to introduce major improvements to the VMC Cluster Conversion workflow within VMware Cloud Sizer! These enhancements deliver better sizing accuracy, greater transparency, and an improved experience as you plan your conversion from i3.metal hosts to i3en.metal or i4i.metal hosts.

What’s New for VMC Cluster Conversion estimates?

Our updated VMC Sizer estimation algorithm now gives you a more complete picture of your resource needs to get a better estimate prior to converting from i3.metal to newer instance types.  The host count recommendation from the updated VMC Sizer output is based on six resource dimensions, and the highest among them drives the recommendation. The output incorporates compute, memory, storage utilization (with both conservative and aggressive options), vSAN storage policies, NSX Edges, and other critical dimensions—all consolidated into a clear, actionable VMC Sizer report with tailored recommendations to support your instance conversion.

This sizing output is a point-in-time snapshot based on current usage and does not account for future workload growth. There are some other caveats for cluster conversions to keep in mind: 

• Final host counts and sizing will be validated during the actual cluster conversion.
• Customers should re-run sizing evaluations after any significant configuration, resource, or other changes.
• No RAID policy changes are made during conversion. 
• Subscription estimates provided as part of this workflow are for planning purposes only and do not represent guaranteed final requirements. 
• Actual subscription needs may be higher than estimated, requiring additional subscription purchase post-conversion. 
• Refunds or subscription reductions will not be provided if estimates exceed actual needs.

Run your sizing evaluation today and see how this new update can help you convert from i3.metal to newer instance types with confidence!

Stay Tuned for Future Updates

At Broadcom, we are committed to continuously improving your VMware Cloud on AWS experience. Please continue to check out our release notes for the latest updates. Questions? Reach out to your account team—we’re here to help you navigate these changes with confidence!