What's New in
VCF 9
VCF 9 Overview
Simplifying Modern Infrastructure Deployment and Operations
Core Mission
VCF 9 streamlines the transition from siloed IT environments to a unified, integrated private cloud platform, making deployment, consumption, and management faster and easier than ever before.
Dual Persona Support
Key Improvements
Unified Management
Single system for entire infrastructure management
Enhanced Security
Advanced security features and compliance
Simplified Operations
Streamlined deployment and management workflows
Multi-Tenancy
Secure, isolated environments on shared infrastructure
Identity Management in VCF Operations
Configure identity federation for VCF with enhanced security and SSO capabilities
Capabilities
Configure identity federation for VCF
Single Sign On (SSO) for VCF stack
High-availability of identity broker
Service accounts for communications between VCF components
Integrations with industry-standard IDPs
Benefits
Choice to use the embedded identity broker in vCenter or deploy an external one through VCF Operations
Multiple VCF Identity Broker deployments for geo-separation or other use cases
Eliminate password-expiry problem for inter-service communication
Integrate with IDPs like Okta, PingIdentity etc
Certificate Management
Visibility, rotate, automate and schedule certificate management across VCF components
Capabilities
Centralized management of TLS certs of VCF components
Single Sign On (SSO) for VCF stack
OOTB alerts for certificate expiry
Automated workflows to replace certificates using MSCA, VMCA & OpenSSL CA
Third Party Signed Certificate support
Benefits
Single pane of glass view for VCF component certificates
Minimizes downtime risks due to expired certificates
Auto-renewal with non disruptive certificate upgrade for VCF components
Password Management
Centralized, automated password management across VCF components
Capabilities
Centralized password mgmt. of local accounts of VCF Components
Out of the box alerts and notifications for password expiry
Password update and rotations
Password Status Dashboard
Benefits
Overall visibility across VCF components
Simplifies management for administrators
Minimizes downtime risks and ensure compliance and security protocols
Configuration Management
Manage vCenter configuration using desired state templates
Capabilities
View drift summary across the environment
Monitor configuration across vCenters
Desired state template from vCenters
Reporting / notification based on policy
Integration with Git repository
Benefits
Detect configuration drifts across the environment
Schedule template-based drift detection
View all drifts in a single console
Control template versions with source control integration
Configuration Status
Tag Management
Centralized View and Management of tags across VCF components
Capabilities
Create, edit, delete categories and tags from a single pane of glass
Import brownfield categories and tags from vCenters and evaluate conflicts
Push categories and tags to vCenters
Tag Categories
Benefits
Single Pane of Glass for Tag Management
Centralized consistent behaviour across services to create and manage tags
Easy identification and elimination of duplicate tags across vCenters
Pushed tags are persisted across vCenters after vMotion
Tag Management Workflow
Integrated Operations Suite
Comprehensive operations capabilities for VCF environments
VCF Health & Diagnostics
Discover and remediate issues impacting VCF software
- • Single console to diagnose known issues
- • View security risks based on CVE
- • Curated remediation steps
Integrated Log Operations
In-context logs for monitoring and troubleshooting
- • Auto collect logs from all VCF components
- • Powerful queries and visualization
- • Create alerts based on operational data
Integrated Network Operations
Network monitoring and troubleshooting
- • Overview of VCF network inventory
- • Monitor health of network components
- • Traffic summary and flow analysis
Storage Operations
Unified operations across storage technologies
- • Federated view of storage components
- • vSAN cluster health monitoring
- • Performance insights and planning
Security Operations
User and Infrastructure Security
- • Holistic view of security stance
- • Overview dashboard for security
- • VCF deployment security posture
Troubleshooting & Observability
Enhanced visibility and faster issue resolution
- • Faster time to value for customers
- • Accelerated troubleshooting
- • Reduced support requests
Compute Enhancements
Advanced compute capabilities for modern workloads
Advanced Memory Tiering with NVMe
Optimizes memory management by offloading cold data to NVMe storage while keeping hot data in DRAM.
Confidential Computing
Leveraging Intel TDX and AMD's SEV-SNP for advanced security by isolating and encrypting workloads.
vSphere Kubernetes Service Enhancements
Key Benefits
Enhanced Performance
Better resource utilization and workload efficiency
Advanced Security
Hardware-level encryption and isolation
Container Flexibility
Support for diverse containerized applications
Storage & Networking Improvements
Enhanced vSAN capabilities and NSX networking innovations
vSAN Storage Enhancements
Native vSAN-to-vSAN Data Protection with Deep Snapshots
Integrated vSAN Global Deduplication
vSAN ESA Stretched Site Recovery
Business continuity during dual-site failures
NSX Networking Innovations
Native VPCs in vCenter and VCF Automation
Simplifies creation and management of secure, isolated networks
High-Performance Network Switching with NSX Enhanced Data Path
Easy Transition from VLAN to VPC
Streamlines migration to modern network architecture
