--- title: "Platform Engineering Opportunity: Virtual Infrastructure Admins Are Well Positioned for Career Growth" url: https://www.vmware.com/explore/video/6403820844112 description: "Platform engineering is the fast-growing infrastructure role driven by exponential growth of container and AI apps, and virtual infrastructure (VI) admins are perfectly positioned to claim it. Your infrastructure expertise and automation experience enable a career evolution that doubles your strategic impact. The hard truth: traditional VI admin roles remain highly critical while platform engineering commands premium compensation and executive visibility. This session reveals what platform engineers do that earns them strategic influence, the skills that command higher compensation, and your practical transition path from managing VMs to architecting developer platforms for modern apps. Most importantly, you will learn why moving now—as enterprises build Kubernetes and AI infrastructure—positions you at the center of your organization's most strategic initiatives." --- # Platform Engineering Opportunity: Virtual Infrastructure Admins Are Well Positioned for Career Growth [Platform Engineering Opportunity: Virtual Infrastructure Admins Are Well Positioned for Career Growth](https://players.brightcove.net/6164421911001/lUBT2rAMW_default/index.html?videoId=6403820844112) — 43:35, published 2026-09-09 ![Platform Engineering Opportunity: Virtual Infrastructure Admins Are Well Positioned for Career Growth](https://cf-images.us-east-1.prod.boltdns.net/v1/jit/6164421911001/4ae10ac3-e092-4d15-a388-818e8c03b465/main/1280x720/21m47s573ms/match/image.jpg) Platform engineering is the fast-growing infrastructure role driven by exponential growth of container and AI apps, and virtual infrastructure (VI) admins are perfectly positioned to claim it. Your infrastructure expertise and automation experience enable a career evolution that doubles your strategic impact. The hard truth: traditional VI admin roles remain highly critical while platform engineering commands premium compensation and executive visibility. This session reveals what platform engineers do that earns them strategic influence, the skills that command higher compensation, and your practical transition path from managing VMs to architecting developer platforms for modern apps. Most importantly, you will learn why moving now—as enterprises build Kubernetes and AI infrastructure—positions you at the center of your organization's most strategic initiatives. ## Session Info - **Session Code**: CLOB1527LV - **Type**: Breakout Session - **Track**: Cloud Infrastructure - **Products**: VMware Cloud Foundation - **Level**: Technical 100 - **Event Delivery**: [Las Vegas](https://www.vmware.com/explore/us) - **Year**: 2026 ## Speakers ### Pankaj Gupta ![Pankaj Gupta](https://static.rainfocus.com/vmware/explore2026lv/att/1750868910357001Wcs1/attprofile/Pankaj%20Pic_1784148388479001BYap.jpeg) Pankaj is Sr. Director of Private Cloud Solutions at Broadcom. In his role, Pankaj helps customers maximize the value of their private cloud investments. In prior roles, he led strategic initiatives for modern applications, networking, security, and cloud portfolios at Citrix, Cisco and others. Senior Director VCF Broadcom ### Brad Tompkins Brad is the Executive Director of the VMware User Group (VMUG). He speaks and travels to many of the VMUG UserCons and tech conferences across the globe. He works closely with the VMUG board and Broadcom to serve the mission of VMUG and its members. He can be contacted on X @BradTompkins_. Executive Director VMUG ### Matt Hemingway Swiss Army knife of IT Director, Platform Engineering Accuris ## Presentation PDF [Download](https://static.rainfocus.com/vmware/explore2026lv/sess/1776975904111001VyrW/presrevpdf/CLOB1527LV_1788454324306001yDhX.pdf) ## Related Videos ### [Mastering the Hybrid Estate: Strategy for Public Clouds and VMware Cloud Foundation with ValueOps by Broadcom](https://www.vmware.com/explore/video/6403822815112) ![Mastering the Hybrid Estate: Strategy for Public Clouds and VMware Cloud Foundation with ValueOps by Broadcom](https://cf-images.us-east-1.prod.boltdns.net/v1/jit/6164421911001/706a28d0-6ea3-4db6-9b9f-694b364f88e2/main/1280x720/16m18s784ms/match/image.jpg) Enterprise IT is a complex hybrid estate. Infrastructure leaders navigate this blindly, relying on fragmented Configuration Management Databases (CMDBs) and siloed billing portals. This makes it impossible to optimize workload placement, compare total cost of ownership (TCO), or confidently execute on strategy. This session introduces ValueOps® by Broadcom as your business and financial intelligence platform. We demonstrate how to achieve radical visibility across all of your infrastructure, giving you the power to manage public and private cloud through a single lens of business value. Join a live demonstration of strategic hybrid portfolio management. See how to automate TCO comparisons and model the financial impact of re-platforming tier-one apps onto VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF). Discover how to escape the public cloud and manage tokenomics to take command of your hybrid strategy. ### [Building a Sovereign Cloud with VMware Cloud Foundation](https://www.vmware.com/explore/video/6403821132112) ![Building a Sovereign Cloud with VMware Cloud Foundation](https://cf-images.us-east-1.prod.boltdns.net/v1/jit/6164421911001/b82d4caa-40bd-4b50-8682-41ca605ff3fc/main/1280x720/21m586ms/match/image.jpg) As organizations scale operations globally, they need to meet requirements for data residency, security, compliance, and business continuity. This session explores how VMware Cloud Foundation® (VCF) supports key sovereignty requirements, including country-specific compliance frameworks, and industry regulations—whether you build your own sovereign infrastructure or leverage VMware Cloud Service Providers (VCSPs) to deliver it for you. Through real-world examples, you will learn how the VCF unified platform enables sovereignty through: - Data residency controls: Configuring VCF to enforce regional data placement policies - Operational sovereignty: Management planes and operator access restrictions - Automated compliance: Policy-driven governance - Workload portability: Consistent architecture deployed on your infrastructure or through VCSPs ### [Enabling Developer Experiences on VMware Cloud Foundation 9](https://www.vmware.com/explore/video/6403821750112) ![Enabling Developer Experiences on VMware Cloud Foundation 9](https://cf-images.us-east-1.prod.boltdns.net/v1/jit/6164421911001/e5460b01-7ec4-4393-acdc-d5aecdb4e309/main/1280x720/11m32s501ms/match/image.jpg) VMware Cloud Foundation® (VCF) 9 helps enterprises move beyond traditional VMware-based infrastructure and deliver a true cloud operating model on private cloud. The focus is on closing the gap between ticket-driven, VM-centric operations and the public-cloud-style experience developers expect today: self-service access, automation, APIs, Kubernetes, security guardrails, and faster delivery. With VMware vSphere® Kubernetes Service (VMware VKS) as the foundation for modern application platforms, VCF 9 enables infrastructure and platform teams to provide developers with a consistent, governed, and automated environment for building and running applications. The key message is simple: VCF 9 is not just infrastructure modernization—it is platform modernization.