IBM Cloud Docs
Offering comparison chart

Offering comparison chart

End of Marketing: As of 31 October 2025, new deployments of VMware Solutions offerings are no longer available for new customers. Existing customers can still use and expand their active VMware® workloads on IBM Cloud®. For more information, see End of Marketing for VMware on IBM Cloud.

Review the following information to understand the differences in feature support between IBM Cloud® for VMware Solutions offerings.

VCF for Classic - Automated vs Flexible

Review the following table to understand the differences in feature support for VMware Cloud Foundation for Classic - Automated and VMware Cloud Foundation for Classic - Flexible instances.

Supported functions for Automated and Flexible instances
Feature VCF for Classic - Automated VCF for Classic - Flexible
Powered by IBM® advanced automation[1] Yes No. Self-built and configured.
Storage options
  • NFS or vSAN™ - available with automation
  • iSCSI - available with manual configuration
 NFS, vSAN, or iSCSI - available with manual configuration
Number of ESXi™ servers in the initial cluster

For vSAN: 4 servers[2] or 3 servers[3]

For NFS:

  • At least 3 servers for consolidated clusters
  • At least 2 servers for other clusters
 No limitation. One or more ESXi servers are allowed on the console. For example, you can deploy a 3-node vSAN cluster with FTT=1.
Maximum number of ESXi servers
  • 51 per consolidated cluster
  • 59 per workload cluster
 59 per cluster
Cloud automated multisite deployment Supported for new instances Supported. Automated configuration - not included.
Add or remove ESXi servers Supported Supported. Automated configuration - not included.
Multicluster support The maximum number depends on VMware® by Broadcom sizing guidelines Supported. Automated configuration - not included.
Client-managed updating and patching of VMware stack Client-managed updates - Native VMware tools (VMware Update Manager™ or vSphere Lifecycle Manager) Client-managed updates - Native VMware tools (VMware Update Manager or vSphere Lifecycle Manager)
Backup and restore Manually, by using Veeam® Backup and restore solution - not included
Add-on services Supported[4] Not supported by the automation of this solution. You can bring and install your own software.
VMware components licensing Automated for some VMware products Not automated