I really like VMware Cloud Foundation because it combines the different tools of the VMware ecosystem into one, unified platform. This allows me to handle compute, networking, and storage from a single console, which simplifies managing our infrastructure. The integration and standardization of these tools are particularly beneficial and reduce the friction between components. I also appreciate its suitability for modern practices like Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) with built-in APIs that support these purposes. Additionally, it eliminates some challenges associated with manual deployment across different parts of the VMware ecosystem. The automated bundle updates are fantastic for reducing the risk of major breaking changes during upgrades. I find the native GitOps features very useful, as they allow me to provision virtual machines using kubectl.

I find VMware NSX fairly rapid and easy to deploy once you have an understanding of the VMware infrastructure. It allows me to tightly implement network security using the zero-trust model. It also supports infrastructure-as-code (IaC), which is really beneficial for us. Perhaps the greatest strength is being able to move virtual machines running on VMware without having to readdress IPs if they're in different subnets and data centers.

What I like most is the ability of how it works with the rest of the VMware stack. Since we already were using vSphere, adding vSAN was very easy. Scaling out is easy too, you just add a node, and the storage grows with it. For day-to-day operations, that simplicity saves a lot of headaches. Also, the UI is user friendly and easy to understand.