Self-service private cloud for application teams. VCF Automation lets developers provision VMs, Kubernetes clusters, and GPU workloads in minutes — while IT maintains governance, cost controls, and compliance.
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Formerly vRealize Automation / Aria Automation
What is VCF Automation?
VCF Automation (formerly vRealize Automation / Aria Automation) is the self-service and infrastructure-as-code component of VMware Cloud Foundation. It gives application teams a cloud-like portal to provision VMs, Kubernetes clusters, networking, and GPU workloads — while IT enforces governance, resource limits, and compliance policies automatically. It is available only within VCF, not as a standalone product.
Most private cloud environments give IT full control over provisioning — but that control comes at a cost. Manual processes slow down development teams. When provisioning takes too long, developers go around IT and use public cloud instead.
Provisioning a VM or Kubernetes cluster in a traditional environment requires tickets, manual approval chains, and configuration by infrastructure teams. This can take days or weeks.
VCF Automation replaces this with a self-service catalog. Application teams select what they need, and the platform provisions it in minutes with pre-approved configurations.
When internal provisioning is too slow, developers use public cloud accounts outside IT governance. This creates security blind spots, uncontrolled costs, and compliance risk.
VCF Automation gives developers the speed they expect from public cloud — on private infrastructure IT already manages and secures.
Managing resource allocation, naming conventions, lease durations, and access controls manually does not scale. As teams grow, governance becomes inconsistent and error-prone.
VCF Automation enforces Policy as Code. Governance rules apply automatically to every provisioning request — no manual intervention needed.
Organizations using VCF Automation report dramatic improvements in provisioning speed, IT efficiency, and developer satisfaction.
Provisioning time — down from 3-4 days
Self-service — no tickets or manual configuration
Platform for VMs, Kubernetes, GPU, and networking
"We used to take up to three or four days to deliver services, but now customers can provision them directly from the catalog in about a half hour. We have gone from days to minutes."
— Infrastructure Team, Major Oil & Gas Company
VCF Automation is the right fit for organizations that need to deliver infrastructure faster without losing governance. Here are the most common deployment scenarios.
Application teams provision VMs, storage, and networking through a modern web portal, CLI, or Kubernetes-style API. No tickets. No waiting. IT defines the catalog and policies — developers consume resources on demand.
Typical scenario: A development team needs five VMs for a staging environment. Instead of submitting a ticket and waiting three days, a developer selects a pre-approved blueprint from the self-service catalog and has the environment ready in 30 minutes.
Isolate teams, business units, or external tenants with project-based resource boundaries. Each project gets its own resource limits, policies, and approval workflows. One platform team serves the entire organization.
Typical scenario: A university IT department provides isolated cloud environments to five research departments. Each department has its own resource quotas, network segments, and cost tracking — all managed from one platform.
Deploy and manage VMware Kubernetes Service (VKS) clusters through the same self-service portal as VMs. Application teams get production-ready Kubernetes without needing to build and maintain cluster infrastructure themselves.
Typical scenario: A platform engineering team offers Kubernetes clusters as a catalog item. App teams request clusters with specific node counts and configurations. VCF Automation provisions VKS clusters with networking, persistent volumes, and RBAC pre-configured.
Provision GPU-enabled VMs and VKS clusters for machine learning workloads through self-service. Data science teams get GPU resources on demand without waiting for manual hardware allocation.
Typical scenario: A data science team needs GPU-enabled Kubernetes clusters for model training. Instead of requesting hardware allocation through a manual process, they provision GPU clusters from the VCF Automation catalog with the right vGPU profiles already attached.
VCF Automation is the self-service and governance layer that sits on top of the core VCF platform. It consumes the compute, storage, and networking services provided by vSphere, vSAN, and NSX.
VCF Automation requires VMware Cloud Foundation. It is not available as a standalone product or with vSphere Standard, vSphere Enterprise Plus, or VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF).
VCF Automation is the current name for what was previously known as vRealize Automation and then Aria Automation. It is now a component of VMware Cloud Foundation.
It provides self-service infrastructure provisioning, infrastructure as code, and multi-tenant governance for private cloud environments built on VCF.
The core functionality is the same platform — rebranded and integrated more tightly into the VCF stack. It is only available as part of a VCF subscription.
No. VCF Automation is available only as an add-on component within VMware Cloud Foundation.
It is not available with standalone vSphere Standard, vSphere Enterprise Plus, or VMware vSphere Foundation (VVF). Organizations that need self-service automation capabilities must license VCF.
Contact our team to understand the full VCF licensing model and how VCF Automation fits into your environment.
Application teams can provision virtual machines, Kubernetes clusters (VKS), networking resources, persistent storage volumes, and GPU-enabled workloads.
Provisioning is available through a web UI, CLI, or Kubernetes-style API. All requests are governed by policies, resource limits, and project-level controls set by the infrastructure team.
IT defines the catalog of available services and the policies that govern them. Developers consume what they need without waiting for manual fulfillment.
Yes. VCF Automation includes native integration with Terraform for infrastructure as code and Ansible for configuration management.
It also supports ServiceNow integration for ITSM workflows, and an Action-Based Extensibility framework for custom automation using scripts, webhooks, and event-driven triggers.
Teams already using Terraform or Ansible can extend their existing workflows into VCF Automation without replacing their current toolchain.
VCF Automation uses projects and namespaces to isolate teams, business units, or tenants. Each project gets its own resource limits, policies, and approval workflows.
Policy as Code enforces governance rules automatically — including naming conventions, lease durations, resource quotas, and network placement.
This allows a single platform team to serve multiple internal customers without manual oversight of every request.
VirtualizationWorks is an authorized VMware reseller. We help IT teams evaluate VCF Automation, plan self-service private cloud deployments, and navigate VCF licensing.
Have questions about VCF Automation, licensing, or deployment? Fill out the form below and a VirtualizationWorks specialist will follow up.
