news
Explore 2026 Starts Today What I'm Watching From Sydney
Four days at the Venetian, and I'm following it from the wrong timezone. Here's the shortlist, and why the announcements from last week already tell you where the platform is going.
architecture
The Numbers Behind the Self-Service Business Case What the IDC White Paper Actually Says
Half of enterprise AI workloads already run on-premises or in private cloud. Nearly a third of organisations have repatriated a quarter or more of their workloads in the past year. If you're trying to fund a self-service platform, these are the numbers to put in front
operations
Certificate Lifecycle in VCF 9.1 The Renewal Trap Nobody Plans For
Auto-renewal in VCF 9.1 fires 60 days before expiry, which sounds like plenty of margin until you find out you can't switch it on for a certificate that's already inside that window. Here's how the renewal model actually works and what to
architecture
The VCF 9.1 Design Gaps Checklist What Architects Need to Decide Before They Build
Most VCF 9.1 design failures I've seen weren't caused by missing documentation. They were caused by a decision nobody actually made. Eighteen of them, by domain, for your next HLD review. Broadcom's documentation for VCF 9.1 is good. The design guide, the
architecture
The Sources Behind the Design Gaps Checklist What Each One Is, and When You'd Actually Read It
Twelve Broadcom documents sit behind the eighteen gaps in the checklist. Here's what each one covers, which gap it backs, and the reason you'd open it yourself. The checklist cites twelve Broadcom sources. Most people won't click any of them, which is a shame,
architecture
The Hardware Line Item An Architect’s Guide to ODM Server Economics on VCF 9.1
Every infrastructure budget conversation this year has the same shape: hardware costs up, refresh budgets flat, and the supply environment for GPUs, memory, and NVMe tightening the “2026 hardware crunch” that has its own session track at VMware Explore this month. When the hardware line item grows, it pressures everything
architecture
VMware Explore 2026 The FSI Architect’s Technical Session Guide
Las Vegas, 31 August – 3 September. Strip away the keynote schedule and there’s a specific set of sessions that matter for regulated-industry platform teams. The technical selection, with the reasoning whether you attend or catch the recordings. VMware Explore 2026 runs 31 August to 3 September at the
operations
Brownfield Import in VCF 9.1 Converting Existing vSphere Into VCF Domains, Technically
Not every VCF journey starts with an empty rack. VCF 9.1’s installer wizard and import workflows convert existing vCenter estates into management or workload domains the mechanics, the constraint surface, and the assessment that decides import versus migrate. The majority of VCF adoption conversations start from infrastructure that
architecture
Data Services Manager 9.1 The Database Layer Joins the Platform’s Operating Model
DBaaS on your own infrastructure: policy-scoped self-service provisioning, lifecycle automation across PostgreSQL, MySQL and SQL Server, and integration with VCF Automation. The technical architecture, the governance model, and where it fits in a regulated estate. Databases are usually the last workload class to join any platform’s operating
kubernetes
The VKS Policy Bundle Admission Control as a Distributed Enforcement Problem
Kubernetes admission policy is where workload security stops being advisory. Broadcom’s new policy bundle for vSphere Kubernetes Service packages the baseline controls the engineering question is how you operate policy at fleet scale without breaking application teams. The technical read. Broadcom shipped a policy bundle for vSphere Kubernetes Service
architecture
VCF 9.1: An Architect's Field Guide to the Design Changes That Matter
Twenty technology and topology updates in VCF 9.1, read through the HLD/LLD lens what actually changes in your sizing, your fault domains, your BoMs, and your patch cycles.
newsletter
Baselines Are on Borrowed Time The Architect’s Guide to Moving ESXi Patching to vLCM Images
Baseline-based host patching has been deprecated since vSphere 8.0 and cannot carry you into vSphere 9.