Hey all! Well, as most have heard, VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 (VCF 9.0) dropped today (June 17, 2025) and it’s packed with upgrades and new features that make private cloud management smoother and more powerful. Over the years I’ve done quite a bit with VMware, and I can really say that I’m excited to see and share what’s new in this release. If you’d like to take a few minutes to review all the details, the Official Release Notes are available now, and if you have some additional time TheCube event from today is a great way to hear from all the key players and leadership driving the innovation with VCF.

Overall, VCF 9.0 unifies vSphere, vSAN, NSX, and more into a streamlined platform that’s easier to deploy and operate. It’s a long list, but I’m going to do my best here to break down the top new features I think are important to cover across vSphere, vSAN, the VCF Installer, VCF Operations, and VMware licensing changes, all of which will help illustrate why this release is a big deal for VMware admins.

vSphere 9.0: Powering Compute with Smarts and Scale

These three features make vSphere and ESXi 9.0 a must-have for any VMware shop looking to boost performance, decrease compute bottlenecks, and simplify management:

• Advanced Memory Tiering with NVMe: This is a performance beast for memory-hungry workloads. By offloading cold data to high-speed NVMe storage while keeping hot data in DRAM, vSphere 9.0 optimizes memory usage without breaking the bank. It’s a lifesaver for running AI/ML apps or massive databases, ensuring you get top-notch performance without needing to max out on expensive RAM. For admins like us, this means squeezing more out of existing hardware while keeping costs in check.
• Next-Gen DRS with Predictive Analytics: The Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) in 9.0 gets a brain upgrade with predictive analytics that anticipate workload spikes and optimize VM placement in real time. This means fewer performance bottlenecks and less manual tweaking, even in dynamic environments with heavy resource contention. For those of us who hate babysitting resource allocation, this smarter DRS is like having an extra admin on the team.
• Enhanced Kubernetes Support with VPC Integration: vSphere 9.0 makes containerized workloads a breeze with native Windows container support and Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) networking. You can now deploy Kubernetes clusters with direct network connectivity, simplifying hybrid VM-container environments. This is huge for teams modernizing apps without ditching their trusty VMs, letting you manage everything in one platform without extra tools or complexity.

vSAN 9.0: Storage That’s Resilient and Cost-Effective

These new vSAN features are practical, powerful, and built for the real-world challenges we face, specifically storage space and capacity management and security and recovery/continuity:

• Global Deduplication: Storage costs can bleed budgets dry, but vSAN 9.0’s global deduplication slashes usage by up to 46% per terabyte by deduplicating data across clusters. I’ve seen firsthand how storage sprawl kills efficiency, and this feature is like a magic wand for reclaiming space. It’s perfect for scaling environments without breaking the bank.
• Native vSAN-to-vSAN Data Protection with Deep Snapshots: This feature is a game-changer for disaster recovery. It delivers near-instant recovery with 1-minute RPOs, letting you bounce back from outages faster than ever. As someone who’s dealt with late-night DR drills, I love how this simplifies protecting critical workloads without extra tools or complexity. It’s built-in, seamless, and a must-have for any vSAN shop.
• vSAN ESA Stretched Site Recovery: For mission-critical apps, this feature ensures uptime even during dual-site failures with stretched cluster support. As an admin who’s had to sweat through site outages, I appreciate how vSAN 9.0 makes business continuity rock-solid. It’s a lifesaver for enterprises that can’t afford a second of downtime.

VCF 9.0 Operations: Automation and Visibility at Scale

• Centralized Fleet Management via SDDC Manager: This is a game-changer—a single dashboard in SDDC Manager now gives you full oversight of compute, storage, and networking across your VCF stack. No more hopping between consoles to keep tabs on your environment; it’s all in one place, saving you time and keeping your private cloud running like a well-oiled machine.
• VCF Diagnostics and Application Topology Analysis: Troubleshooting just got a major upgrade with tools that pinpoint issues fast, using deep topology insights to map out your apps and infrastructure. This means less time digging through logs and more time fixing problems before they impact your users—perfect for busy admins like us.
• Self-Service Provisioning for Platform Engineers: VCF 9.0 lets your team deploy VMs, Kubernetes clusters, and storage on-demand without sacrificing governance. It’s a win for speeding up app delivery while keeping everything secure and compliant, making you the hero of both developers and the C-suite.

VCF 9.0 Installer: Deployment Made Admin-Friendly

With VCF 9.0 we now have the VCF Installer appliance (previously known as Cloud Builder) which is a new virtual appliance that provides automated deployment and configuration workflows for VCF components, which makes deploying private clouds faster, smarter, and less stressful:

• Unified Installer Interface: This is a game-changer—a single, sleek UI that lets you deploy vSphere, vSAN, NSX, and add-ons like vDefend or Avi Load Balancer without juggling multiple tools. It’s intuitive, cuts setup time, and feels like VMware finally heard our pleas for simplicity when spinning up a private cloud.
• Expanded Brownfield Import: For those of us with existing VMware setups, this feature is a lifesaver, letting you seamlessly pull in vSphere 8.0, vSAN, NSX, or even vDefend environments into VCF 9.0 with minimal downtime. It’s perfect for upgrading without tearing down your infrastructure, making brownfield transitions smoother than ever.
• Enhanced Diagnostics and Pre-Checks: The installer now comes with beefed-up diagnostics that catch misconfigurations before you hit “go,” saving you from late-night troubleshooting sessions. These pre-checks are like having a co-pilot ensuring your deployment doesn’t crash and burn.

Licensing in VCF 9.0: Simplified but with New Rules

So real talk here…VCF is moving from traditional serial/key-based licensing to a file-based entitlement model that’s modern and more manageable.

• Unified Solution License Key for Simplified Management: VCF 9.0 introduces a single solution license key that unlocks most components—vSphere, NSX, Aria Suite, and more—eliminating the headache of juggling multiple keys for each product. This is a huge time-saver for admins, as you no longer need to track down and apply individual licenses across your stack; it’s all handled through one file in VCF Operations, making allocation and usage tracking a breeze.
• Integrated Cost Management and Chargeback Tools: The new licensing model ties into VCF Operations’ cost management features, letting you track infrastructure costs with precision and set up showback/chargeback for tenants or app teams. With rate cards supporting the latest core and vSAN TiB metrics, you can define pricing policies and get detailed dashboards to monitor expenses, which is perfect for enterprises needing to justify IT costs to the business.
• Compliance Reporting for Transparency: VCF 9.0 requires regular compliance reports to Broadcom every 180 days, detailing your license usage for cores and vSAN TiBs. While this adds some admin work, it ensures you’re always audit-ready and maximizes transparency, helping you avoid surprises and keep your private cloud deployment fully compliant.

Some may want to get more information on the licensing changes, so along with my quick synopsis I’ve also included the links below to articles from The Architect’s Edge by Christopher Kusek, a VMware cloud and virtualization evangelist and strategist who has some great content you should also be following. He does a great job of breaking down and explaining the details on the VCF 9.0 licensing topic in these two posts:

• VCF 9.0 Licensing. Simplified. Real talk on what VCF licensing looks like now.
• What’s Inside a VCF 9 License File? Understanding Connected vs. Disconnected Registration

In closing, VCF 9.0 is a major step forward, making private clouds easier to deploy, manage, and scale while keeping costs in check. Dive into VMware’s VCF 9.0 documentation or Broadcom’s VCF blog for the full details, and let me know in the comments how you’re planning to use these features in your environment. Thanks!