Artificial intelligence is changing the IT landscape in radical, unprecedented ways. It’s rewriting the rules of code generation, automating complex customer service interactions, and providing data insights that used to be impossible to extract, even in recent decades. However, for IT managers and those responsible for keeping the lights on, AI represents a massive shift in infrastructure requirements. It’s a tool that needs to be used strategically, and that strategy starts at the hardware and virtualization layer.
As you work on your organization’s AI strategy, you need to take your infrastructure into account. You cannot build a skyscraper on unstable ground, and you can’t build a reliable, secure AI strategy on legacy infrastructure that wasn’t built for high-density, GPU-accelerated workloads. This is where the conversation shifts from software to the bedrock of your data center.
Broadcom is introducing VMware Cloud Foundation 9 (VCF 9), which incorporates groundbreaking technology designed specifically to support artificial intelligence. This release signals a pivotal moment for private cloud infrastructure, moving AI from a niche, hardware-intensive experiment to a scalable, manageable standard resource.
For IT leaders, the challenge is how to adopt these capabilities without incurring massive capital expenditures or introducing unmanageable complexity. This is where 11:11 Systems enters the picture. We provide the robust, secure, and resilient Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) solutions that support these advanced capabilities. By leveraging a VMware-based platform, we offer the best foundation for your AI strategy, ensuring that when you are ready to deploy, your infrastructure is ready too.
The Infrastructure Gap in AI Adoption
Most conversations about AI focus on the models: Large Language Models (LLMs), Generative Pre-trained Transformers (GPTs), and neural networks. Yet, the number one reason AI projects stall isn’t because there isn’t enough data or the algorithms aren’t right. It’s because organizations don’t have enough suitable infrastructure.
AI workloads are hungry. They require massive compute power. They also need low-latency networking and high-speed storage. Traditionally, supporting these workloads meant building dedicated silos of hardware, such as racks of expensive GPUs that sat idle when not training models, or shadow IT clusters built by data scientists figuratively hiding under their desks, completely bypassing corporate security protocols.
This creates an infrastructure gap. On one side, you have data scientists who need speed and agility. On the other, you have IT operations demanding security, governance, and cost control. Bridging this gap requires a platform that treats AI resources, especially GPUs, much more like any other virtualized resource (CPU and RAM). This includes pooled capacity, policy controls, and clear governance, instead of one-off hardware silos.
This is the promise with VMware Cloud Foundation 9 (VCF 9). It transforms the private cloud into a unified platform where AI workloads can coexist with traditional enterprise applications, managed by the same tools you use today.
A New Standard for Private AI
Broadcom’s release of VCF 9 is laser-focused on supporting and advancing the AI era. Private AI introduces a sophisticated infrastructure approach that aligns the competitive advantages of AI with the stringent privacy and compliance requirements that are essential for modern organizations.
Public AI models are fantastic for general tasks, but few organizations are comfortable sending their proprietary code, customer data, or financial records into a public model. VCF 9 allows you to bring the AI model to your data, rather than sending your data to the AI.
The VCF 9 platform introduces several key features that directly support this mission, turning your infrastructure into a flexible engine for innovation.
Managing Models like Code
Deploying an AI model is not a “set it and forget it” task. Models are large files that need to be versioned, secured, and distributed efficiently. VCF 9 supports complex LLM (Large Language Model) workflows through the VMware Private AI Foundation with NVIDIA.
A standout feature here is the way VCF 9 combines a Harbor-based model store for AI artifacts with vSphere content libraries for deep learning VM and Kubernetes images. In the past, models might have been scattered across developer laptops or unsecured file shares. With VMware Private AI Foundation on VCF 9, you can govern models and AI images with the same rigor you apply to ISO images or VM templates: versioned, approved, and delivered from a central, controlled repository.
GPU as a Service
One of the most significant hurdles in enterprise AI is the cost and management of Graphics Processing Units (GPUs). In a physical environment, a GPU is often tied to a single server or even a single application.
VCF 9 fundamentally changes how enterprises consume GPU capacity. Powered by VMware Private AI Foundation with NVIDIA, VCF 9 makes GPU as a Service a first-class, governed platform capability. IT teams can virtualize GPU resources, publish them as catalog-driven services, and allocate them on-demand to different teams and workloads. This improves utilization across the organization while maintaining centralized control.
Integrated Kubernetes with vSphere Kubernetes Service
Modern AI platforms are increasingly containerized. Whether you are running training jobs or deploying inference endpoints, Kubernetes is becoming the control plane of choice alongside VMs. Historically, managing Kubernetes on bare metal was a complex, specialized task that required a different skill set than managing virtual machines.
VCF 9 deepens VMware’s integrated Kubernetes capabilities, centering on the vSphere Kubernetes Service (VKS). This integration brings Kubernetes management directly into the vSphere and VCF interface that IT professionals already know and trust, so AI clusters and traditional workloads can operate, side-by-side.
The Role of IaaS in Your AI Strategy
Understanding the capabilities of VCF 9 is one thing. Implementing and then continuing to maintain the physical infrastructure to support it is another. Building a private AI-ready data center requires significant upfront capital, specialized power and cooling for high-density racks, and a team dedicated to hardware lifecycle management.
But this is where 11:11 Systems can help. Rather than building a new data center that is AI ready on your own, we can give you a path to private, secure, flexible infrastructure that allows you to scale containers, run AI workloads, and maximize services with AI tools whenever you are ready to implement your AI strategy.
We provide Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) solutions that are built on the industry-leading VMware foundation, and are focused on providing the resilient, secure, and high-performance platform that those applications need to run.
Why IaaS is the Best Foundation for AI
When you choose 11:11 IaaS, you are choosing to offload the heavy lifting of infrastructure management so you can focus on innovation.
- Speed to Market: procuring, racking, and stacking high-performance servers can take months. With our IaaS solutions, you can provision the VMware-based resources you need to support your AI strategy in a fraction of the time.
- Scalability: AI workloads absolutely need to be flexible. You might need massive compute power for a week of training, followed by a period of lower intensity. Our scalable solutions allow you to expand your footprint when you need it, avoiding the peak provisioning trap where you pay for capacity you rarely use.
- Reliability and Uptime: AI models in production are mission-critical. If your customer service bot goes offline, it impacts your brand. 11:11 Systems brings more than 40 years of experience in protecting mission-critical data. Our cloud platform is built with resilience at its core, designed to ensure your systems are always up and running.
Security: The Non-Negotiable
AI introduces new attack vectors and compliance challenges. If you are running AI on-premises or in a private cloud to protect your data, the underlying infrastructure must be impregnable.
At 11:11, security is not an add-on; it is embedded in our DNA. Our IaaS solutions prioritize security with advanced features to prevent breaches and threats. We maintain a robust compliance portfolio, ensuring that the infrastructure supporting your AI workloads meets the rigorous standards of your industry, whether that is healthcare, finance, government, or whatever your sector.
We provide the secure perimeter and the hardened environment so that you can deploy VCF 9 capabilities with confidence. You retain control over your data and your models, while we ensure the lights stay on and the doors stay locked.
Preparing for Tomorrow
The introduction of VMware Cloud Foundation 9 is a clear signal that the future of IT is intertwined with AI. The ability to offer GPU as a service, manage Kubernetes natively, and govern AI models via content libraries will soon be table stakes for enterprise IT.
However, technology is only as good as the platform it runs on. As you navigate your digital transformation journey, consider the how as much as the what. How will you power these workloads? How will you secure them? How will you scale them?
11:11 Systems is here to answer those questions. We provide the VMware-based framework so you can build your AI initiatives from the ground up.
Next Steps for IT Leaders
If your organization is exploring AI, now is the time to assess your infrastructure readiness. Do not let legacy hardware be the bottleneck that stifles innovation.
- Audit your current capacity: Understand your compute and storage limitations.
- Evaluate VCF 9 features: Determine how GPU virtualization and Kubernetes integration fit your roadmap.
- Partner for success: Consider how 11:11 IaaS can accelerate your adoption of these technologies without the capital risk.
Your AI strategy deserves a foundation built for performance, security, and the future. In the coming weeks, we’ll dive a little deeper into the specific features enabled in VCF 9 and what that will mean for your organization.
