Key features of VMware Cloud Foundation include:
- Integrated stack: An engineered solution that integrates the entire VMware software-defined stack with guaranteed interoperability, freeing organizations from dealing with complex interoperability matrixes.
- Enterprise-grade services, based on VMware technologies: vSphere, vSAN, NSX, and Aria Suite (formerly vRealize Suite) delivering enterprise-ready cloud infrastructure services for both traditional and containerized applications.
- Integrated intrinsic security delivers network-level microsegmentation, distributed firewalls and Virtual Private Network (VPN), compute-level encryption for VM, hypervisor and vMotion, and storage-level encryption for data at rest and clusters.
- Self-driving operations enable self-driving health, performance, capacity, and configuration management to scale and manage the environment efficiently.
- Self-service automation automates the delivery of IaaS and application services using blueprints (templates) that bind compute, storage, networking, and security resources through policies.
- Standardized architecture automatically deploys a hyperconverged architecture based on a VMware Validated Designs for SDDC, ensuring quick, repeatable deployments while eliminating risk of misconfiguration.
- Storage elasticity and high performance provide a hyperconverged architecture with all-flash performance and enterprise-class storage services, including deduplication, compression, and erasure coding.
- Automated life cycle management includes unique life cycle management services that automate Day 0 to Day 2 operations. These operations range from deployment to configuration of the cloud environment, to on-demand provisioning of infrastructure clusters (workload domains), to upgrades of the complete software stack.
- Automated deployment automates the bring-up process of the entire software platform, including creation of the management cluster, configuration of storage, deployment of platform components/management VMs, and provisioning using standardized architecture designs.
- Workload domain and cluster provisioning enables on-demand provisioning of isolated infrastructure clusters to separate workloads.
- Simplified updating and upgrades enable simplified updating and upgrading of the software platform (including VMware vCenter Server). Cloud administrators have the flexibility to choose the timing and scope of the updates.
- Simple path to hybrid cloud dramatically simplifies the path to hybrid cloud by delivering a common platform for private and public clouds. It enables a consistent operational experience and the ability to quickly and easily move workloads at scale across clouds without rearchitecting applications, leveraging VMware HCX.
- Tanzu Runtime Services and Hybrid Infrastructure Services that provide the basis for the cloud infrastructure and container ecosystems to accelerate developer productivity.