VMware vSphere 9

vSphere 9 is the compute layer of VMware Cloud Foundation 9. ESXi 9 and vCenter Server with memory tiering, Confidential Computing, Native VPCs and enhanced GPU virtualization.

vSphere 9

Current version

80M+

VMs worldwide

99.9%

Uptime

Years market leader

Features

vSphere 9, Compute Layer of VCF 9

New in vSphere 9: memory tiering, Confidential Computing and Native VPCs

ESXi 9 Hypervisor

Bare-metal Type-1 hypervisor with support for DPUs, NVMe and the latest CPU architectures.

vCenter Server + Native VPCs

Central management with VPC-first networking directly in the vCenter UI (via NSX 9 integration).

Memory Tiering (NEW)

NVMe as a memory tier for higher VM density and up to 40% more consolidation without DRAM expansion.

Confidential Computing (NEW)

Intel TDX and AMD SEV-SNP, workload isolation even against the hypervisor operator.

GPU Virtualization

vGPU partitioning, GPU vMotion and NVIDIA AI Enterprise for Private AI workloads.

vMotion + DRS

Live migration without downtime and intelligent workload balancing across the cluster.

Introduction

What is vSphere 9?

vSphere 9 is the compute layer of VMware Cloud Foundation 9. It combines the ESXi 9 hypervisor with vCenter Server and adds memory tiering, Confidential Computing and Native VPCs, the foundation for modern workloads, from enterprise VMs to AI and Kubernetes.

Innovations

New in vSphere 9

vSphere 9 brings the biggest set of innovations in years. Memory tiering uses NVMe as an extension of DRAM for higher VM density. Confidential Computing isolates workloads from the hypervisor itself. Native VPCs (via NSX 9) are managed directly in vCenter. And Windows containers now run alongside Linux pods via VKS.

Memory tiering with NVMe, up to 40% more VM density
Confidential Computing with Intel TDX / AMD SEV-SNP
Native VPCs managed directly in the vCenter UI
Windows containers alongside Linux pods via VKS Supervisor

Availability

vMotion, HA & DRS

The proven availability features of vSphere remain the backbone of your data center. vMotion live-migrates running VMs between hosts. vSphere HA automatically restarts VMs when hosts fail. DRS intelligently balances workloads and now also supports GPU-aware scheduling.

Compute and Storage vMotion without downtime
vSphere HA: automatic failover on hardware failure
DRS with GPU-aware and memory-tiering awareness
Fault Tolerance for mission-critical workloads

Services

Our vSphere Services

Our VMware-certified engineers support organizations in designing, implementing and optimizing vSphere 9, from greenfield deployments and vSphere 7/8 upgrades to Confidential Computing configuration and GPU enablement.

Assessment, capacity planning and architecture design for vSphere 9
Upgrades from vSphere 7/8 to vSphere 9
Memory tiering and GPU enablement (vGPU, NVIDIA AIE)
Performance optimization and security hardening

Benefits

Why vSphere 9?

Reliability

20+ years of market leadership with millions of production workloads worldwide, the foundation of VCF 9.

Performance

Memory tiering, DPU offload and vGPU for maximum resource utilization and consolidation.

Flexibility

VM, Kubernetes and Windows containers side-by-side, support for the latest hardware.

Security

Confidential Computing, VM encryption, vTPM and integrated compliance via VCF Operations.

Use Cases

vSphere 9 Use Cases

Data Center Consolidation

Reduce hardware by 10:1 or more through memory tiering and improved VM density.

Confidential Workloads

Run regulatory-critical workloads with hypervisor-level isolation.

AI & GPU

GPU-virtualized workloads with vGPU pooling and GPU vMotion.

Hybrid Containers

VMs alongside Windows/Linux containers on one platform via VKS.

Ready for vSphere 9?

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