In addition to incorporating private AI services into VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0, enabling enterprises to run both AI and non-AI workloads natively, Broadcom also announced the addition of Advanced Cyber Compliance services to VMware Cloud Foundation and new capabilities for VMware vDefend and VMware Avi Load Balancer, further enhancing the security resilience and compliance capabilities of modern private clouds.
These new features are particularly focused on industries with high regulatory requirements, such as finance and healthcare, as well as potential new attack threats arising from agent AI workloads.
Information security and compliance become the focus of corporate executives
Broadcom cited research data indicating that 65% of large enterprise attacks involved data encryption, 30% were accompanied by data breaches, and 71% of multinational companies struggled to comply with cross-border regulations, making security and compliance a challenge for many corporate boards and IT departments. Broadcom emphasized that VCF can serve as a unified private cloud platform, integrating infrastructure hardening, threat prevention, compliance, and resilience mechanisms, replacing previously fragmented security solutions.
VCF Advanced Information Security and Compliance Services
The new VCF Advanced Security Compliance Service provides automated compliance and security governance for highly regulated industries, with three key application areas:
• Continuous compliance monitoring:Through SaltStack's automated monitoring and repair mechanisms, the VCF environment is ensured to remain compliant at all times, and it supports secure data engine imaging and automatic patching.
• Automated information security and data recovery:It provides push-button VM virtual network isolation and clean environment recovery, helping businesses quickly respond to issues such as ransomware, natural disasters, or hardware failures. Built-in detection tools can also filter out both file-based and fileless malware.
• Platform Security and Incident Response:Includes enterprise-grade container image security, enhanced compute protection, and proactive risk assessment to reduce the threat attack surface and strengthen compliance protection.
vDefend Expands AI and Zero Trust Security
In VMware vDefend, Broadcom extends the Zero Trust philosophy to AI workloads, providing the following capabilities:
• AI Horizontal Security Protection (Technology Preview):Designed specifically for agent-based AI, it protects internal AI communications through strict access control and secure channels.
• Automated Zero Trust Implementation:The new workflow can introduce fine-grained protection at the service and application levels in stages, and avoid redundant configurations through firewall rule analysis.
• Expanded Threat Detection:The newly added NDR sensor can collect traffic from the entire data center and identify large-scale attack behaviors.
• Fileless malware protection:Integrate Windows AMSI to intercept malicious attacks in memory such as PowerShell, VBScript, and Jscript, filling previous detection loopholes.
Avi Load Balancer brings next-generation protection
The VMware Avi Load Balancer, formerly part of NSX, has also been enhanced with the following:
• Post-quantum cryptography (PQC):Introducing NIST algorithms to mitigate the risk of future quantum computing breaking traditional encryption.
• Mutual TLS authentication (mTLS):In a vSphere Kubernetes containerized environment, ensure bidirectional authentication between the client and the server.
• WAF Security Assessment Report:Provides built-in tools to monitor the status of the Web Application Firewall, helping IT administrators gradually expand protection.
• MCP Traffic Security (Technology Preview):For the Model Context Protocol, new traffic detection, session persistence, and authorization management have been added to mitigate potential new attacks associated with AI applications.
Providing comprehensive security for private clouds in the AI era
Broadcom is integrating compliance governance, zero-trust protection, and post-quantum security through VCF advanced security and compliance services, as well as new enhancements to vDefend and Avi Load Balancer, to create a more comprehensive private cloud security defense. As AI workloads become the new normal, these measures will help enterprises maintain security and compliance during digital transformation.
