Since completing its acquisition of VMware in 2023, Broadcom Inc. has reshaped the company around VMware Cloud Foundation or VCF. Over the past three years, Broadcom has positioned VCF as a major on-premises alternative to public cloud, with private cloud becoming a central part of its strategy that will undoubtedly be one of the primary subjects of discussion at VMware Explore.
As enterprises modernize applications and prepare infrastructure for AI, the ability to deliver consistent operations, governance, security and workload mobility across environments has moved from being “nice-to-have” infrastructure to becoming a critical competitive requirement. VCF’s integration of disparate software modules in hybrid and multicloud environments plays directly into the needs of this evolving enterprise market.
“Hybrid and multicloud are no longer transitional architectures; they are the operating reality for enterprise application teams,” said theCUBE Research’s Paul Nashawaty. “Our AppDev research shows that 61.8% of enterprises run hybrid deployments, with another 10% operating across multiple clouds, underscoring how application teams must manage increasingly distributed infrastructure, workloads, data and security requirements. That makes the operational challenges being addressed at VMware Explore 2026 highly relevant to the broader market.”
TheCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, will be covering the latest news and announcements from VMware Explore in Las Vegas from Aug. 31-Sept. 2. Tune in for on-site reporting and exclusive interviews with Broadcom executives and industry leaders as theCUBE examines what it takes to run enterprise AI in production and how Broadcom is positioning its software strategy for private cloud, private AI and agentic AI. (* Disclosure below.)
Private cloud for AI infrastructure
AI’s emergence has created a new set of dynamics in which enterprises must now manage the technology’s impact as a risk and cost multiplier. VMware executives have quoted statistics in conversation with theCUBE showing that more than 70% of enterprises are experiencing AI-related attacks.
AI’s risk profile is also influencing how industry leaders view the public cloud. While training and experimentation may be suitable for cloud-service environments, production AI workloads are increasingly finding a home in private infrastructure.
The release of VCF 9.1 in May highlighted Broadcom’s interest in providing a secure and cost-effective infrastructure platform for AI and Kubernetes-native private cloud environments. This will become even more important as organizations adopt agentic AI, according to theCUBE Research’s Krista Case.
“AI agents introduce a new set of infrastructure requirements because they can make decisions and take actions across systems, applications and data,” Case said. “Enterprises will need strong identity and policy controls around those actions, visibility into agent behavior and clear mechanisms for containing mistakes or malicious activity. At VMware Explore 2026, I’ll be looking at how the platform is evolving to help enterprises govern agentic activity across private cloud, public cloud and edge environments without sacrificing the operational control that critical workloads require.”
Managing operational risk and recovery
The security implications of AI continue to occupy the attention of tech industry executives. High-profile breaches involving autonomous agents from both OpenAI Group PBC and Anthropic PBC have raised the focus on this area even further.
Earlier this month, Broadcom announced new security, performance and automation capabilities for VCF, designed to help enterprises defend private clouds against artificial intelligence-assisted attacks while reducing operational complexity and infrastructure costs. A new vDefend 1-2-3 workflow provides a three-stage process for deploying intrusion detection and prevention, along with network traffic analysis and network detection and response.
Broadcom’s recent security messaging has focused on lateral threat prevention and AI-driven attacks. VCF 9.1 includes zero-trust lateral security, compliance enforcement, recovery capabilities and live patching features designed to protect sensitive workloads without relying on fragmented bolt-on tools.
“AI will change what enterprises expect from cyber recovery,” Case noted. “When agents participate directly in business processes, restoring servers, applications and data may not be enough to restore the business to a trusted operating state. Organizations will also need visibility into the actions agents took, the policies and permissions in effect at the time, and the sequence of activity that produced the disruption. VMware Explore 2026 provides an opportunity to see how infrastructure and security platforms are preparing for that shift.”
TheCUBE event livestream
Don’t miss theCUBE’s coverage of VMware Explore, Aug. 31-Sept. 2. Plus, you can watch theCUBE’s exclusive content on demand after the event.
How to watch theCUBE interviews
We offer you various ways to watch theCUBE’s coverage of VMware Explore, including theCUBE’s dedicated website and YouTube channel. You can also get all the coverage from this year’s event on SiliconANGLE.
TheCUBE podcasts
SiliconANGLE’s “theCUBE Pod” is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube, which you can enjoy while on the go. During each podcast, SiliconANGLE’s John Furrier and Dave Vellante unpack the biggest trends in enterprise tech — from AI and cloud to regulation and workplace culture — with exclusive context and analysis.
SiliconANGLE also produces our weekly “Breaking Analysis” program, where Dave Vellante examines the top stories in enterprise tech, combining insights from theCUBE with spending data from Enterprise Technology Research, available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube.
Guests
During theCUBE’s coverage of VMware Explore, company executives from Broadcom, AMD, Cisco, Supermicro, Rackspace, ThinkOn and more will examine what it takes to run enterprise AI in production and how Broadcom is positioning its software strategy for private cloud, private AI and agentic AI.
(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for VMware Explore. Neither Broadcom, the sponsor of theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)