VMware Cloud Foundation Automation – Consume and Deploy Virtual Machines and Kubernetes Clusters
Source: VMware Blog
Overview
In our previous blog, we discussed how an organization admin leveraging VMware Cloud Foundation Automation can enable their organization to be ready for application teams to self‑serve and provision infrastructure and applications.
In this post we shed light on two foundational infrastructure services that are enabled and available out of the box when configuring a tenant organization that leverages the K8s‑style API: the Virtual Machine Service and the vSphere Kubernetes Service.
The Kubernetes declarative API model has already transformed how organizations build and operate modern applications. In recent years the same model has been extended beyond containerized workloads into infrastructure itself. What started with kubectl apply for Pods and Deployments has evolved into using Kubernetes APIs to provision and manage virtual machines, K8s clusters, networking, storage, load balancers, and even databases. Kubernetes is no longer “just the platform for cloud‑native apps.” It is becoming the universal control plane for both applications and infrastructure.
Virtual Machine Service
The Virtual Machine (VM) Service in VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 provides a unified, Kubernetes‑native interface for provisioning and managing VMs directly through namespaces. By exposing VM classes, images, storage policies, and networking configurations as declarative Kubernetes resources, the VM Service enables platform and application teams to consume vSphere‑backed compute using familiar Kubernetes tooling.
Key points
- Governance – Enforces policies defined at the organization, region, and project levels in VCF Automation.
- Lifecycle management – Handles creation, updates, and deletion of VMs through standard
kubectlcommands. - Integration – Leverages vSphere’s mature virtualization capabilities underneath the Kubernetes API surface.
Below is a detailed walkthrough of the VM provisioning workflow experience in VMware Cloud Foundation Automation.
vSphere Kubernetes Service
The vSphere Kubernetes Service (VKS) in VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 delivers a fully integrated, upstream‑compatible Kubernetes control plane that runs natively on vSphere. Through VKS, organizations can create and operate Kubernetes clusters as first‑class cloud resources with consistent networking, storage, identity, and security enforced by the underlying VCF platform.
Highlights
- Fully integrated control plane – Runs directly on vSphere, providing high performance and low latency.
- Lifecycle automation – Automates cluster provisioning, scaling, upgrades, and decommissioning.
- Conformance & governance – Ensures clusters meet CNCF standards and adhere to enterprise policies.
- Enterprise resiliency – Inherits VMware’s scalability, HA, and security features.
Below is a detailed walkthrough of the vSphere Kubernetes Cluster provisioning workflow experience in VMware Cloud Foundation Automation.
Summary
VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 brings the VM Service and VKS together as core pillars of a unified, modern infrastructure platform.
- VM Service enables developers to consume vSphere‑backed VMs via Kubernetes‑native APIs.
- vSphere Kubernetes Service provides a fully integrated, conformant Kubernetes environment for running containerized workloads.
Together, these services give organizations the flexibility to support both traditional and cloud‑native applications with consistent governance, automation, and security.
Ready to get started with VCF Automation and enable IT to deliver a self‑service private cloud for application teams to build, run, and manage AI, Kubernetes, and VM‑based applications?
Visit us online at VMware Cloud Foundation Automation for additional resources.