Broadcom plans to make VMware Cloud Foundation compatible with the ARM architecture. There’s no rush behind these plans.
Broadcom wants customers with ARM servers to also have access to VMware hypervisor and VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF). The company indicates it will convert components of Cloud Foundation to ARM. This is according to The Register.
For the Big Players
Broadcom notes that the ARM architecture is becoming increasingly prevalent, especially at the edge of networks. Since Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware, the virtualization specialist only focuses on the world’s largest customers. It’s the cloud-native enterprises and telecom giants that the company aims to attract with this move.
It’s notable that Broadcom is initially looking at on-premises ARM servers of large companies. The extensive ARM offerings in the clouds of AWS, Microsoft, Google, and Oracle are being ignored for now. This is striking since the ARM architecture in servers is gaining traction primarily in that context, rather than in the on-premises data centers of companies.
Initially, Broadcom will make parts of VCF compatible with ARM-based Nvidia servers. It’s unclear if and when the entire suite will get ARM support. In the meantime, VMware will formally support the ESXi hypervisor on ARM. Code for this was already launched in 2020, but companies using it did so at their own risk.
VMware already has some products that are ARM-compatible. The vSphere Distributed Services Engine (DSE) is a niche product that can work with ARM-based CPUs and NICs.
How many users are enthusiastic about the news is unclear. Since the acquisition by Broadcom, VMware has mainly been in the news for customer-unfriendly practices, unilaterally imposed license increases, and aggressive sales tactics toward captive customers.