Virtually Speaking Podcast

VMware Cloud Foundation 9.1 introduces some of the biggest changes to vSAN in years, and in this episode of the Virtually Speaking Podcast, Pete and John sit down with Pete Koehler, Product Marketing Engineer for vSAN, to break it all down.

 

The conversation dives into how vSAN is becoming simpler to operate, more efficient at scale, and better aligned with modern application and cyber recovery requirements. Pete explains the new Auto RAID capability, the redesigned effective capacity model, enhancements to global deduplication and compression, and how vSAN is reducing operational complexity through more automated, system-managed behavior.

 

The team also explores native S3-compatible object storage for AI and modern applications, support for QLC drives in cyber recovery environments, improvements for migrations between OSA and ESA clusters, and expanded encryption support across storage clusters.

 

Topics include:

• Auto RAID and simplified storage policy management

• Effective capacity and easier capacity planning

• Global deduplication and new compression improvements

• Zstandard (ZSTD) compression for structured data workloads

• Native S3-compatible object storage in vSAN

• QLC storage support for cyber recovery use cases

• OSA to ESA migration flexibility

• Remote datastore enhancements and encryption support

• Cyber recovery and disaggregated storage clusters

• vSAN security improvements in VCF 9.1

Links Mentioned
More Capacity with VMware vSAN Compression and Global Deduplication in VCF 9.1
https://blogs.vmware.com/cloud-foundation/2026/05/07/vsan-compression-and-global-deduplication-in-vcf-9-1/
   
Cost-Efficient VMware vSAN ReadyNodes Certified for Cyber Recovery Deployments
https://blogs.vmware.com/cloud-foundation/2026/05/07/vsan-readynodes-cyber-recovery/
   
Auto-RAID in VMware vSAN for VCF 9.1 - Comprehensive System-Managed Data Resilience
https://blogs.vmware.com/cloud-foundation/2026/05/08/auto-raid-in-vsan-for-vcf-9-1/
   
Simplifying Storage with the New Effective Capacity View in VMware vSAN for VCF 9.1
https://blogs.vmware.com/cloud-foundation/2026/05/11/effective-capacity-view-in-vsan-for-vcf-9-1/
   
Greater Flexibility and Security with VMware vSAN Storage Clusters in VCF 9.1
https://blogs.vmware.com/cloud-foundation/2026/05/12/vsan-storage-clusters-in-vcf-9-1/

Behind every feature in VMware Cloud Foundation 9.1 is the work that makes it actually run at scale. In this episode, Pete and John sit down with Emad Younis to unpack the details practitioners care about most.

From fleet architecture and latency planning to sizing at massive scale, Emad breaks down how to think about designing VCF environments in the real world. They also cover the shift from SDDC Manager to VCF Operations, how to approach upgrades without going all-in on day one, and what it really means to operate across thousands of hosts.

If you’re planning, designing, or scaling VCF, this is the episode that connects the dots.

Cyber threats are evolving fast, and traditional defenses are no longer enough. In this episode, Pete and John sit down with Belu De Arbelaiz and Jacob Garrison from CrowdStrike to explore how VMware Cloud Foundation 9.1 is redefining cyber resilience.

They break down the rise of AI-driven attacks, the shift toward malware-free breaches, and why identity compromise is now one of the biggest risks. The conversation dives into Advanced Cyber Compliance (OCC), the new isolated clean room for recovery, and how integration with CrowdStrike Falcon brings behavioral analysis into the recovery workflow.

From detection to validation to recovery, this episode shows how organizations can confidently recover from attacks and get back to business faster.

Edge environments are growing fast, but managing them at scale is anything but simple. In this episode, Pete and John sit down with Rick Walsworth to explore how VMware Cloud Foundation 9.1 is transforming edge deployments.

From zero-touch provisioning and built-in security to lifecycle management and massive scale, Rick breaks down how organizations can deploy and manage thousands of remote sites with consistency and control. The conversation also covers emerging use cases like AI at the edge and real-world examples like software-defined manufacturing.

If you’re looking to simplify edge operations while maintaining security and scalability, this episode is a must-watch.

AI is easy to demo but hard to run in production. In this episode, Pete and John sit down with Chris Wolf, Global Head of AI at Broadcom, to break down what it actually takes to operationalize AI.

They explore how customers are moving from experimentation to real-world Private AI on VMware Cloud Foundation 9.1, where it fits alongside public cloud models, and how to identify use cases that deliver measurable business value. The conversation also dives into intelligent model routing, MCP governance, GPU and CPU flexibility, and why production inference requires a full platform approach.

If you’re trying to separate AI hype from reality, this episode connects the dots.