From virtualization tool to modern private cloud

Changing demands and needs

Organizations that moved to the public cloud in recent years are increasingly hitting the same barriers: unpredictable costs, data management falling outside their own jurisdiction, and compliance issues that resurface with every audit. At the same time, requirements regarding data sovereignty have become more concrete. These are no longer abstract concepts, but recurring components of tenders and risk assessments.

In this context, the demand for private cloud is growing. Not as a nostalgic return to the on-premises data center, but as a conscious choice for an environment that combines the benefits of the cloud with the control of your own infrastructure. Scalability and self-service, but within your own boundaries, under your own regulations, with insight into every aspect of usage and costs. VMware Cloud Foundation 9 is built precisely for that need.

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What is fundamentally changing

Those who knew VMware as vSphere—the hypervisor used to virtualize servers and intelligently distribute resources—knew it as a powerful tool. But a tool is what it was: a specific component of a broader IT architecture that you had to assemble, connect, and manage yourself. Networking from one vendor, firewalls from another, storage separate again.

VCF 9 starts from a different premise. The platform integrates compute, storage, networking, security, and automation into one continuous stack. Not as separate products that work together, but as one coherent system with a single management interface, one way of upgrading, and one way of reporting.

This has direct operational consequences. Where a healthcare institution or municipality previously needed three or four vendors for compute, firewalls, network segmentation, and load balancing, it is now all in one platform. Fewer connections, fewer dependencies, shorter lead times for changes, and one party to hold accountable for the whole.

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The same as the hyperscalers, but sovereign

Perhaps the most striking aspect of VCF 9 is what it enables for the end user within the organization. Through a self-service portal, development teams can request environments, deploy containers, or spin up virtual machines themselves, without needing to interact with the infrastructure layer. At the same time, administrators maintain full visibility into capacity, costs, and configuration per department or tenant.

This is the experience employees know from public cloud portals, but entirely on your own premises, under your own regulations, without data ever leaving the organization. Private cloud is therefore no longer a compromise between control and ease of use. It is both at the same time.

At the same time, everything is auditable. Every action, every configuration change, and every deviation from policy is traceable. For organizations operating under NIS2, ISO 27001, NEN 7510, or sector-specific standards, this is no longer a side issue; it is a hard requirement.

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All workloads in one platform

One of the most strategically relevant features of VCF 9 is that it is workload-agnostic. Virtual machines, Kubernetes containers, and AI workloads run side-by-side on the same platform, with shared governance, management, and visibility layers.

This is relevant for organizations currently modernizing their application landscape: existing systems in VMs can continue to run, while new services are built as cloud-native. There is no forced migration, no sharp divide between old and new. The transition can take place in a controlled, phased manner on the same platform.

The same applies to AI: VCF 9 makes it possible to run GPU workloads entirely on your own infrastructure without data leaving the organization. Private AI is no longer a futuristic concept, but a concrete option on the same platform that supports the rest of the environment.

Measurable efficiency

Beyond functional expansion, VCF 9 also delivers concrete efficiency gains at the platform level. Smarter memory usage via NVMe, improved storage compression, and insights into energy consumption and CO₂ footprint per application. For organizations that need to provide sustainability reports or want to better allocate IT costs across departments, these are not just nice-to-haves.

Larik-Jan Verschuren and Arnoud Kamphuis from Fundaments have written an extensive technical analysis of the innovations in VCF 9.1: from Memory Tiering and vSAN ESA to network automation and database-as-a-service. For those who want to dive deep: read the article here.

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The position of Fundaments

Fundaments provides VCF not as a license, but as a fully managed service. From Dutch data centers, under European law, and with the highest partner status within the Broadcom ecosystem. Architecture, implementation, lifecycle management, and daily operations are all handled by a team that knows the platform.

For organizations that want to embrace private cloud without building and managing a platform themselves, this is the direct route. The infrastructure layer is manageable, the proposition is complete, and responsibilities are clearly defined.

For service providers and MSPs looking to support their customers on a platform that is compliant, scalable, and future-proof, Fundaments offers the same foundation as a shared multi-tenant environment or as a dedicated environment per customer.

Beyond the licensing discussion

The uncertainty surrounding Broadcom and VMware is real and has had concrete consequences for many organizations and partners. At the same time, beyond the licensing discussion, there are new possibilities from a purely technical perspective.

VMware Cloud Foundation 9 is the most mature private cloud proposition currently available, with a feature set that stands up to direct comparison with hyperscalers, but on your own terms and with full control. This is no small step. It is a fundamental shift in what private cloud can be.

The question is no longer whether licensing costs have increased. The question is what you can do with it now. And that answer has become a lot more interesting.

Want to know more?

Would you like to know how VMware Cloud Foundation 9 fits your infrastructure or that of your customers? Contact us for an exploratory conversation and a technical analysis of the possibilities.

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