Broadcom CEO urges cloud-to-on-prem repatriation

Broadcom CEO Hock Tan delivered a rather defiant keynote to open the VMware Explore conference in Las Vegas recently, telling the audience they are better off using the latest version of VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) on-premises than hyperscale cloud service providers.

“Most of you continue to be weighed down by your infrastructure, and you’re afraid to move forward,” said Tan. “So how do you let go of your IT past so you can build for the future? Well, I can tell you for sure the answer is not to run straight to public cloud, as you did five, ten years ago. If you’re going to do cloud, do it right. Embrace VCF 9.0 and stay on prem.”

He pointed to a global survey of IT professionals conducted earlier this year found seven out of 10 planned to come back on prem. Enterprises want to invest in private cloud, but VMware never truly integrated the building blocks of a cloud, Tan said.

“Since the acquisition two years ago, we roll up our sleeves, did the tough engineering work, and the result today is VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0, a real software-defined platform to run all your application workloads with complete compute, networking and storage, tightly integrated, and this is what you asked for,” he said.

Introduced in June, VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 offered a significant overhaul of the software, providing a unified private cloud platform with notable improvements in management, automation, multi-tenancy, and storage efficiency. Tan noted that this was the first release to combine all the components into one SKU, rather than assembling it piecemeal as was needed in the past.

Its single operations console provides administrators with a unified dashboard, allowing centralized monitoring, lifecycle management, and configuration of on-premises and cloud resources. The new SecOps dashboard delivers real-time insights into platform security and data controls with integrated compliance and policy enforcement features.

It also introduced native multi-tenancy with Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) constructs, allowing tenant isolation, secure workload segmentation, and easier resource management for service providers and regulated industries.

And at the show, Broadcom the company announced its intent to include Private AI Services in VCF at no extra cost. VMware previously sold the package as an add-on to VCF. It is expected to debut sometime between November and January 2026.

Matt Kimball, vice president and principal analyst for data center compute and storage for Moor Insights & Strategy, said Tan has a solid point even if it is self-serving. “Cost and complexity associated with a multi public cloud environment are driving a lot of IT and business leaders to rethink their cloud investments,” he said.

But it’s not about repatriation, it’s a rationalization. “It’s understanding the right balance between what sits on prem and what sits in the cloud. And it’s about what sits under your control – through VCF – and what you trust to the CSPs to manage,” said Kimball. “This is an evergreen exercise. As an IT leader, you are failing your organization if you aren’t continually looking at your data estate and evaluating where to place your workloads and data based on cost, security, complexity and compliance.”

Read more news from VMware Explore 2025:

• Broadcom’s VMware strategy pays off financially, but customers not as keen as Wall Street:To many attendees at this year’s VMware Explore conference, turnout felt smaller, there were fewer sessions than last year, and there were markedly fewer vendors on the exhibit floor. But while the mood among VMware Explore attendees was dour, Broadcom is seeing record gains.
• Broadcom touts AI-native VMware, but gains aren’t revolutionary:Broadcom’s VMware has taken on the AI mantle, declaring that the VMware Cloud Foundation platform is now “AI native.” In the big picture, however, Broadcom didn’t set the world ablaze with its announcements. They were all the obvious next steps for the company and do not move the needle forward on AI technology.
• VMware Avi load balancer gains AI integration and post-quantum security: The role of load balancing is growing in the genAI era. Broadcom announced significant enhancements coming to VMware Avi release 31.1.1. The update introduces plug-and-play integration with VCF 9.0 private cloud, AI-powered operational capabilities, and post-quantum cryptography support. These developments reflect the platform’s evolution from a traditional load balancer into a comprehensive application services platform.
• How one midsize enterprise is making VCF work: Broadcom’s shift to all-in-one, perpetual licenses for VMware Cloud Foundation has infuriated customers and priced out some companies, but 750-employee Grinnell Mutual has managed to save money on the new platform.
• Broadcom tackles agentic AI security challenges:Broadcom announced new security enhancements for its VMware vDefend and VMware Avi products, which are part of the VMware Cloud Foundation Cyber Compliance Advanced Services. Upgrades include more security for agentic workflows, including model context protocol (MCP) servers, and support for post-quantum encryption, among other improvements.
• Broadcom and Canonical expand partnership, promising accelerated innovation: The combination of VMware Cloud Foundation and Ubuntu Pro offers enterprise-grade container-based and AI applications.
• Broadcom launches VMware Tanzu Data Intelligence and Tanzu Platform 10.3 to drive agentic AI:Broadcom is pushing its new data lakehouse platform as the answer to all an enterprise’s data challenges — or almost. As VMware Explore kicks off, customers are looking for VCF value: Despite grumbling by customers, as well as legal action against Broadcom on a number of fronts, there’s no indication that Broadcom CEO Hock Tan is wavering the least bit from his strategy. Broadcom’s pitch is that VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) enables IT organizations to run a modern, virtualized, high-performance, highly automated, AWS-style cloud in an on-prem environment with all of the benefits that accrue.