Broadcom CEO At VMware Explore: VCF ‘Now Outperforms Public Cloud’

“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 or 10 years ago. If you’re going to do cloud, do it right. Embrace VCF 9.0 and stay on-premise,” says Broadcom CEO Hock Tan. Here’s five bold statements from Tan at VMware Explore 2025.

Broadcom CEO Hock Tan unleashed some bullish remarks during his keynote at VMware Explore 2025 today, including that VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9.0 now outperforms public cloud offerings.

“With VCF 9.0, private cloud now outperforms public cloud,” said Broadcom CEO Hock Tan during his keynote at VMware Explore 2025 today. “It has better security, better cost management, and of course, greater control.”

Tan spoke in front of thousands of Broadcom and VMware customers, partners, developers and IT leaders during VMware’s flagship event on Tuesday in Las Vegas.

“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 or 10 years ago,” said Broadcom’s CEO. “If you’re going to do cloud, do it right. Embrace VCF 9 and stay on-premise.”

At VMware Explore today, the company launched a slew of new innovations and enhancements to VMware Cloud Foundation including a new private AI as-a-service, cybersecurity enhancements and a new AI assistant. On the security front, VMware launched a new Cyber Compliance Advanced Service for VCF, a revamped Avi Load Balancer, native vSAN S3 Object Storage and new innovations for vDefend for private cloud.

For a deeper dive and to learn about VMware’s biggest launches today, read CRN’s 10 Biggest Product Lauches And Innovations at VMware Explore 2025.

VMware Explore 2025 is the second VMware event to be held since Broadcom acquired the multicloud software superstar in late 2023 for $61 billion.

Here are the five boldest remarks from Broadcom CEO Hock Tan during his keynote presentation today at VMware Explore, which focused almost exclusively on VMware Cloud Foundation 9.

VCF Private Cloud Bests Public Cloud

A global survey of IT professionals earlier this year made it clear what your top priority is: 7 out of 10 of you plan to come back on-premise.

You want to invest in private cloud, but here’s the challenge, VMware innovated for years, but he never truly integrated the building blocks of a cloud.

But now, here’s the good news. 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.

This is what you asked for: we deliver VCF as a single SKU. We made it plug and play.

With VCF 9.0, private cloud now outperforms public cloud. It has better security, better cost management, and of course, greater control. So the technology works with Broadcom and VMware.

‘VCF 9 Is The Culmination Of 25 Years Of VMware Technology And Innovation’

Most of you continue to be weighed down by your legacy infrastructure. You’re afraid to move forward.

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 or 10 years ago.

If you’re going to do cloud, do it right. Embrace VCF 9.0 and stay on-premise.

We want to give you the best cloud platform in the world. And I mean that. We want to make you a hero, the person who drives this huge impact in your organization.

VCF 9.0 is the culmination of 25 years of VMware technology and innovation. This is the platform for the future.

‘You No Longer Need A Bunch Of Agents and Additional Security Tools’

Your job is to secure the business against multiple threats, both physical and virtual.

At the same time, all you face pressure to move more quickly. How often do you hear this, ‘Yeah, we care about security, just don’t let it slow things down.’

Well, VCF allows you to balance these two priorities. We have a broad set of security solutions integrated into VCF 9.0.

You no longer need a bunch of agents and additional security tools—it’s all built in VCF.

VCF 9 Breaks Down ‘The Silos In Your Organization’

It’s not just developers you need to work with. Look at your own team: your networking, your storage, your computer security—each of these teams speak their own language.

Once again, this unified platform changes all that.

With VCF 9.0, you break down the silos in your organization. This is a platform that embraces IT developers and unites compute, networking and storage.

Here’s the payoff, a big one. It’s an accelerated path to production for your apps today.

It’s more than just nice to have. It’s critical for all of us.

‘We’re Giving You Infrastructure At The Speed Of The Developer’

One point of friction we see [is with] developers.

Developers don’t want to think about infrastructure. Modern apps run on containers and developers just want to write code using their favorite DevOps tools.

Meanwhile, your job is to put guardrails in place.

With VCF 9.0, we run containers as seamlessly as we run virtual machines. You no longer need two separate different platforms.

We’re giving you infrastructure at the speed of the developer.