At its recent VMware Explore conference, Broadcom announced that VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) is now “AI native.” The move signals the company’s intent to align with the broader tech industry’s adoption of large language models and agentic AI.
This push arrives against a backdrop of controversy. Since Broadcom acquired VMware in late 2023, customers have bristled at licensing changes, the removal of free tiers, and reports of aggressive sales tactics. Lawsuits around perpetual licenses have only amplified the discontent, pushing some customers toward alternatives like Nutanix, SUSE, and IBM.
The Cost of Leaving VMware
Despite frustration, many enterprises remain locked in. VMware deployments are notoriously complex, and migrating workloads out of heavily virtualized environments carries steep costs and operational risks. For many IT leaders, sticking with VMware—despite rising fees—is safer than navigating a risky transition.
That same logic applies to Broadcom’s AI integration strategy. Embedding AI deep into VMware’s architecture risks breaking workloads. Given the mission-critical nature of VMware’s customer base, Broadcom is opting for incremental AI enhancements instead of radical re-engineering.
Private AI Services and New Tools
Next year, VMware Private AI Services will launch with VCF 9 subscriptions. The package will give enterprises the ability to run AI workloads on-premises rather than relying solely on hyperscale cloud providers. It will include:
- A model store for open-source and smaller models
- Indexing services
- Vector databases
- An agentic AI builder
- A pre-built API gateway for AI-to-AI communication
Broadcom also unveiled updates to the VMware Tanzu Platform, such as streamlined MCP server publishing and a new data lakehouse offering, Tanzu Data Intelligence.
AI at the Edges of VMware
Among the “low-hanging fruit” showcased was Intelligent Assist for VCF—a chatbot tapping into VMware’s knowledgebase. While not groundbreaking, it promises to speed up user support by reducing time to resolution before human escalation.
This AI sprinkling is less about innovation and more about signaling relevance. VMware knows that as enterprises grow more reliant on AI, platforms without built-in support risk becoming obsolete.
Legacy Lock-In as Long-Term Insurance
The hype cycles around containers and cloud once predicted the end of traditional virtualization. Yet just as on-prem databases never fully disappeared, neither has VMware’s dominance. Enterprises with decades of sunk infrastructure costs remain tied to it, ensuring Broadcom’s steady revenue stream despite grumbling customers.
AI may be VMware’s new talking point, but its real advantage isn’t flashy innovation—it’s the gravity of legacy systems anchoring enterprises in place.
Source: https://www.artificialintelligence-news.com/news/broadcom-nods-at-ai-looks-to-long-term/
