Broadcom has announced an initiative allowing hardware partners to self-certify their equipment as compliant with a freshly developed spec for AI workloads under VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF), enhancing the framework’s extensibility.

Dubbed ‘AI Ready Nodes,’ the specification aligns with VMware’s existing ‘vSAN ReadyNodes’ concept, designed for software-defined storage. This move assures customers that their infrastructure is equipped for AI deployments on VCF as Broadcom continues its strategic transition into the AI infrastructure domain.

Reinforcing this venture, Broadcom has expanded its certification program to permit original design manufacturers to self-certify ReadyNodes. SuperMicro is poised to lead the pack in certifying an AI ReadyNode system.

Furthermore, VCF’s support extends to edge-optimized nodes, optimally configured for industrial and remote retail applications. A notable collaboration with SNUC, a server manufacturer, illustrates Broadcom’s commitment in this area.

On the networking front, Broadcom is striving to unify network fabrics, leveraging standards like Ethernet VPN and BGP to simplify datacenter networking operations. The company is also collaborating with Cisco to enable seamless interoperability between VCF and Cisco’s Nexus One solutions, though a release timeframe has not been specified.

At a higher level in the software stack, Broadcom is promoting its VMware Kubernetes Service (VKS), now certified as a Kubernetes AI Conformant Platform by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation. This certification ensures that the platform can reliably support AI workloads, adhering to industry-standard configurations and capabilities.