A series of announcements from Broadcom Inc. this week underscored its plan to transform VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 into an AI-native platform. At the heart of that vision is artificial intelligence, with private AI serving as a key element that makes VCF a secure, scalable private cloud foundation.

On Tuesday, Broadcom announced the addition of VMware Private AI Services as a standard solution of VCF 9.0. The offering will enable organizations to design, deploy and govern AI models on private infrastructure.

“Three years ago, we had enough validation from our customers that the notion of being able to bring an AI model adjacent to your data that you’re owning … was going to be a really important space, and it was a space that nobody was talking about,” said Chris Wolf (pictured, left), global head of AI and advanced services, VMware Cloud Foundation Division, at Broadcom. “Today, what do you see? You see hyperscalers offering solutions that go on-prem, you hear them talking about private AI. We shared we have more than 80 customers now. We have a … pipeline of new customers that we’re working to on-board. It’s absolutely taken off.”

Wolf spoke with theCUBE’s John Furrier and Paul Nashawaty at VMware Explore, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. He was joined by Gavin Jolliffe (right), chief executive officer of Xtravirt Ltd., as they discussed how Broadcom is transforming VCF into a key resource for private cloud infrastructure. (* Disclosure below.)

VCF anywhere for private AI

Broadcom’s strategy with VCF is driving the emergence of private cloud as a way for organizations to exercise control over AI deployments, while controlling costs and maintaining flexibility with changing enterprise workloads. Broadcom partners such as Xtravirt are guiding customers through this transition by leveraging VCF 9.0.

“Our core strategy … is around something we call VCF Anywhere,” Jolliffe said. “What that means is enabling customers to be able to deliver private cloud, private AI and other strategic capabilities, whether it’s in their data center through a cloud service provider, a hyperscaler, a mix of all of those. It’s about embedding the solution into the heart of a customer’s operating model.”

This approach has led to the formation of alliances with other key industry players such as Nvidia Corp. Broadcom’s collaboration with Nvidia spawned the VMware Private AI Foundation, an integration of the chipmaker’s inference microservices with Broadcom’s infrastructure. The VMware Private AI Foundation has been especially beneficial for the supercomputing platform at the University of Bristol, according to Jolliffe.

“That supercompute platform is today one of the world’s fastest AI supercomputers. You can imagine the immense cost of managing that density of resources,” he said. ” What we ended up doing was enabling the university to have a tiered AI capability. By being able to extend VCF with private AI and Nvidia GPUs, it also gives them a secure and governed way of being able to allocate the resource whilst being able to keep their operational costs in check.”

Broadcom’s latest announcements surrounding VCF and private AI have brought further focus on the concept of a sovereign cloud. As SiliconANGLE analysts have noted, the sovereign cloud isn’t merely about where data resides, it’s about governance and control.

“The key thing with VCF that I think kind of gets missed sometimes in the conversations is everybody is claiming they can do sovereign cloud, but the details matter here,” Wolf said. “The difference with VCF is we run a fully air-gapped environment. The organization owns the control plane. That is absolute control that you have. No matter what happens in the world, you have ownership of the software stack and your intellectual property.”

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of VMware Explore:

(* Disclosure: Broadcom Inc. sponsored this segment of theCUBE. Neither Broadcom nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE