Modern Infrastructure, Modern Security: Turn Complexity Into Channel Services Growth

Modern infrastructure elements like containers, Kubernetes, private cloud and AI servers have changed how applications are built and run, giving businesses new opportunities to innovate.

The Cloud Native Computing Foundation’s 2026 Annual Cloud Native Survey found that 82 percent of container users run Kubernetes in production, up from 66 percent in 2023. The study also found that 66 percent of organizations hosting generative AI models use Kubernetes for some or all of their inference workloads.

As Kubernetes becomes part of the foundation supporting modern applications and AI, customers need expertise to deploy and operate it successfully at scale. This need is growing as operational complexity increases and AI accelerates vulnerability discovery, which has significantly reduced the window between infrastructure exposure and exploitation.

Today’s dynamic environments have made infrastructure management, security and governance essential for effective modernization. Solution providers that connect these requirements can grow beyond technology implementation into higher-value consulting, modernization, security and managed services.

“The biggest opportunities for our partners are in developing services that help customers understand the platform and operating model vSphere Kubernetes Service (VKS) on VCF,” said Chris Nolan, professional services management for Broadcom. “[Then] build and deploy VKS, and help our customers re-platform and modernize their environments, and then build services to operate their on-prem private clouds. Our customers need the expertise our partners bring to help them through this journey.”

Simplify Before Adding More Infrastructure

Containers promise application portability and agility. But as adoption grows, customers often end up with multiple container platforms, fragmented management tools and organizational silos that make the environment difficult to operate and drive up costs.

With VMware VKS on VMware Cloud Foundation, solution providers can help clients simplify operations while also building new services around modernization, Kubernetes deployment, and private cloud operations.

Providers can create a modernization roadmap for customers with services such as:

• Platform assessment and consolidation: Identify overlapping platforms and management tools and determine where standardization can reduce complexity and cost.
• Application and infrastructure modernization: Help customers decide which workloads to containerize and build an infrastructure foundation that supports traditional, cloud-native and AI workloads.
• Governance and operations: Establish policies, ownership and processes across application development, infrastructure and security teams.
• Ongoing optimization: Provide monitoring, lifecycle management, capacity planning and managed infrastructure services.

Make Security Part Of The Modernization Plan

AI-enabled discovery of cyber vulnerabilities was named the top emerging security risk, according to a 2026 Gartner, Inc. survey of senior executives and risk professionals.

Traditional security processes that depend heavily on manual discovery, patching and remediation may struggle as the vulnerability window shrinks. Gartner recommends accelerating cyber response strategies, including faster patching and automated remediation.

“The most important feature is automated patching,” said Doug Dorta, Broadcom’s enterprise CTO for the Americas. “Most vulnerabilities arise when patching isn’t applied properly or in time. With automated patching, we’re decreasing the interval between disclosure of the vulnerability and the potential exploitation by an AI cybersecurity threat.”

Infrastructure consolidation is an opportunity to examine where workloads run and how quickly those workloads can be patched, protected and recovered. Partners can focus on several high-impact areas:

• Centralize visibility: Give infrastructure and security teams a clearer view of performance, alerts, security events and patch status.
• Automate patching: Reduce manual steps between vulnerability identification, testing and remediation.
• Strengthen identity and credentials: Centralize controls for authentication, passwords and certificates across infrastructure.
• Protect workloads: Apply consistent security controls as applications move across virtualized, containerized and private cloud environments.
• Modernize aging infrastructure: Identify older platforms that prevent customers from taking advantage of newer automation and security capabilities.

VCF 9.1, for example, brings capabilities such as automated patching, centralized auditing, encryption and fleet-level identity and credential management into the infrastructure platform.

Build A Path From Projects To Recurring Services

A project that starts with uncovering Kubernetes sprawl and redundant infrastructure can shift to delivering consolidation and greater operational consistency. Modernization opens the door to automated patching, stronger identity and credential controls, workload protection and centralized visibility. With those capabilities in place, customers still need expertise to operate, optimize, patch and protect the environment.

“The biggest result we’re seeing with VCF 9.1 is that customers get more value out of infrastructure they already have, while strengthening and protecting their environments,” said Arnaud Gandibleux from Pellera, a Broadcom Expert Advantage services partner.

The convergence of modern infrastructure and modern security is particularly relevant to the channel, where the opportunities are not limited to selling or migrating a platform. Partners can build a lifecycle of consulting, implementation, modernization, security and managed services to make increasingly complex infrastructure simpler to operate, faster to secure and easier to scale.

Read more about Broadcom’s Expert Advantage services partner success stories and how they support modern application development and private cloud security at VMware Cloud Foundation Partner Success Stories.