Broadcom outlines KubeCon takeaways for VKS
Broadcom highlighted KubeCon Europe updates, including expanding VMware vSphere Kubernetes Service (VKS) with new CNI options from F5, Kong and Tigera and noting Velero’s contribution to the CNCF — changes that matter for enterprise Kubernetes networking and backup strategies. Those additions widen vendor choices for CNI and resilience in production clusters. (x.com)
VKS 3.6 ships with upstream Kubernetes 1.35 support and Broadcom says the release includes a 24‑month extended support window for that Kubernetes minor version. (news.broadcom.com) The release adds explicit RHEL 9 compatibility and supports mixed‑OS clusters so customers can run RHEL nodes under VKS lifecycle management while preserving Red Hat end‑to‑end support. (blogs.vmware.com) VKS 3.6 introduces declarative TuneD profiles that let operators apply kernel and sysctl tuning via Kubernetes APIs for latency‑sensitive and data‑intensive workloads, alongside tighter upgrade safety mechanisms. (blogs.vmware.com) Broadcom validated F5 BIG‑IP Container Ingress Services (CIS) with VKS to automate L4–L7 programming from Kubernetes resources and centralize traffic and security policy enforcement for VKS workloads. (vmware.com) Kong’s API Gateway and Konnect management plane are positioned as a standardized ingress and policy layer for VKS, enabling centralized traffic governance and runtime policy enforcement on workloads running in VKS. (news.broadcom.com) Tigera’s Calico is listed as a supported CNI option for VKS—bringing Calico Open Source and Calico Enterprise capabilities (including eBPF‑based networking, network policy, and observability) into VKS clusters. (tigera.io) Broadcom submitted the Velero backup‑and‑restore project into the CNCF Sandbox (with the contribution application filed in February), and the CNCF Sandbox GitHub issue shows Broadcom as the sponsoring organization for the Velero onboarding process. (news.broadcom.com)
