At VMware Explore 2025, Pete Flecha and John Nicholson sit down with Chandra Prathuri, Product Management, VMware Cloud Foundation Division at Broadcom, to dive into the automation capabilities of VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0   The conversation kicks off with an analogy of turtles and tunnels, pointing out how slow and fragmented traditional IT operations can feel. Chandra explains how VCF 9 is designed to eliminate those bottlenecks by giving admins AWS-like self-service experiences on-premises—without the risk of surprise bills.   Key topics include: Automation at scale: Streamlining workflows that typically span compute, storage, network, and security teams. Fleet management: Lifecycle management with minimal downtime, certificate management, and desired state configuration. Governance and cost control: Balancing agility with oversight and financial predictability. Kubernetes and AI readiness: Native Kubernetes support plus GPU time-slicing to optimize workloads (e.g., inference during the day, training at night).   This episode highlights how VCF 9 helps IT teams shift from slow, ticket-based processes to a modern, automated private cloud experience.   👉 Don’t miss future episodes—subscribe to the Virtually Speaking Podcast on YouTube and your favorite podcast platform!