If you’re weighing up vSphere Foundation (VVF) and VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) ahead of your next renewal, the decision has largely been made for you. Broadcom has withdrawn vSphere Foundation from sale. What began as a regional withdrawal across parts of EMEA in December 2025 now applies to new subscriptions and renewals, with Cloud Foundation becoming the product customers are quoted. That may not be as limiting as it first sounds. Here, we explain what VVF included, what VCF adds and why the move to one broader platform can be viewed as an upgrade rather than simply a loss of choice.
The short version
vSphere Foundation (VVF) packaged the core virtualisation tools most organisations needed: ESXi, vCenter, a fixed vSAN allowance and basic operational tooling. VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) builds on that base with enterprise networking, automation, hybrid cloud tools and four times the storage entitlement. The table below shows how the two products compared. VVF is included for reference because customers buying or renewing today will be quoted for VCF.
| vSphere Foundation (VVF): retired | Cloud Foundation (VCF): current |
Core hypervisor | ESXi (Enterprise Plus) + vCenter Standard | Everything VVF had |
Networking | Standard vSphere networking only | + NSX Enterprise (micro-segmentation, overlay networking) |
vSAN capacity | 0.25 TiB per licensed core | 1 TiB per licensed core (4x) |
Automation | Aria Operations & Operations for Logs | + Aria Automation, Aria Operations for Networks, SDDC Manager |
Hybrid / DR | Not included | + HCX for hybrid cloud and migration |
Availability | No longer sold; shown for reference | The only tier quoted on new deals and renewals |
What vSphere Foundation (VVF) used to cover
VVF combined vSphere Enterprise Plus, including the ESXi hypervisor, with vCenter Server Standard, a 0.25 TiB vSAN allowance per licensed core, Aria Operations, Aria Operations for Logs, and Tanzu Kubernetes Grid or vSphere Kubernetes Service for basic container support. It offered a solid platform, bringing centralised management and useful operational visibility to the virtualisation technology many organisations already relied on. However, it did not include the networking, automation or hybrid cloud capabilities needed to create a full private cloud. VCF is designed to close that gap.
What Cloud Foundation (VCF) unlocks
VCF includes everything previously available in VVF, plus four capabilities that would otherwise require separate purchases and implementation projects:
- NSX Enterprise networking: micro-segmentation, distributed firewalling and overlay networking that would otherwise require a standalone NSX licence and a separate implementation project. Within VCF, organisations can introduce stronger network security through the platform they already use, without starting another procurement exercise.
- Aria Automation and Aria Operations for Networks: self-service provisioning and automated lifecycle management. This is often where organisations see an early return, as engineers spend less time on routine changes and manual patching.
- HCX for hybrid cloud and workload migration: disaster recovery and cloud mobility are available from day one, rather than being added later at extra cost when they become essential.
- SDDC Manager: coordinated, full-stack lifecycle management across the platform, helping to reduce the risk associated with patching and upgrades over time.
VCF also includes a vSAN entitlement of 1 TiB per core, four times the allowance previously available with VVF. For many growing estates, that can remove a significant area of future storage licensing costs.
Why the higher price reflects a bigger platform, not just a bigger invoice
VCF is sold on a per-core subscription basis. Perpetual licences are no longer available for new deals, and customers can no longer choose the smaller VVF tier. Two minimums apply: a 16-core minimum per physical CPU socket, meaning a 12-core processor is still licensed as 16 cores, and a 72-core minimum per order, which has been in place since April 2025. Subscription terms are available for one, three or five years.
Broadcom does not publish per-core rates, so accurate pricing requires a formal quote. However, industry pricing reviewed through 2026 suggests that VCF costs around 2.7 times more per core than VVF did. On its own, that increase looks significant. The wider picture is more balanced: VCF includes enterprise networking, automation, hybrid cloud tools and four times the storage entitlement. Buying and implementing those capabilities separately would also involve substantial cost, so the package may offer better value for growing estates that are likely to need them.
Why VVF disappearing is less of a loss than it looks
It is understandable to see the retirement of a lower-cost tier as bad news. Yet for many estates, VVF would only have been a temporary solution. It provided reliable virtualisation but no route to the networking, automation or hybrid cloud capabilities that organisations often need as they grow. With VVF gone, renewals now move to a platform where NSX, HCX and SDDC Manager are already included and can be introduced when there is a clear business case. This avoids a separate procurement and implementation project later.
How we got here: the EMEA withdrawal was the first sign
In December 2025, Broadcom withdrew vSphere Foundation as a standalone option in several EMEA markets, leaving Cloud Foundation as the only available tier. At the time, this appeared to be a regional change. In hindsight, it signalled the direction of the wider portfolio: one broader platform rather than a smaller alternative alongside it. For customers renewing now, that consolidation is the starting point for the conversation rather than an unexpected detail in the quote.
The vSphere 9 upgrade window is a good moment to make the jump
There is no standalone vSphere 9, and with VVF retired, VCF is now the only way to access it. If you are still running vSphere 7 or 8 under a legacy Enterprise Plus licence, the timing may work in your favour. Support for vSphere 8 ends in October 2027, while vSphere 7 is already out of support, so an upgrade project is likely to be needed regardless. We have covered the vSphere 8 deadline in more detail elsewhere, but the key point is simple: if you are already making changes to the platform, this is a good opportunity to move to a solution that supports the future direction of your estate rather than treating the upgrade as a like-for-like replacement.
What this means if you’re coming up for renewal
If your current VVF term still has time remaining, nothing changes straight away. At renewal, however, you will be quoted for Cloud Foundation, with no like-for-like VVF option available. Organisations that gain the most from this change tend to plan ahead. Before the renewal discussion, identify which parts of VCF, such as network segmentation, automation and hybrid cloud tooling, will support your roadmap. This helps shift the conversation away from a higher licence cost and towards the value the wider platform can deliver.
This is also a good time to review any mixed or legacy licensing across the estate. An entitlement audit before renewal helps ensure the new platform is configured around your future plans, rather than simply copying the old VVF setup and leaving much of VCF’s value unused.
Making sure the upgrade earns its keep
The renewal quote only tells part of the story. The more important question is what NSX, automation, HCX and the expanded vSAN entitlement could deliver once they are in use. We help clients map VCF’s capabilities against their own roadmap, so a renewal becomes an opportunity to get more from the platform rather than simply paying more for the same virtualisation. If your renewal quote has arrived and you want to understand how to make the most of it, get in touch and we can review it with you.
