---
title: VMware Cloud Director
url: https://www.vmware.com/products/cloud-infrastructure/cloud-director
description: VMware Cloud Director is a leading cloud service-delivery platform used by cloud providers to operate & manage successful cloud-service businesses. Learn more.
---

# VMware Cloud Director

Efficiently operate and manage your managed private and public cloud services using VMware Cloud Director within the VMware Cloud Foundation platform. Leverage the leading solutions for cloud service delivery and infrastructure management.

[TRY HANDS-ON LAB](https://labs.hol.vmware.com/HOL/catalog/lab/14248)

[VMware Cloud Director Overview](https://players.brightcove.net/6415665063001/83iWkhhmz_default/index.html?videoId=6348419879112)

## Managed Public and Private Cloud Platform

Deliver secure, efficient, and elastic cloud resources to thousands of enterprises and IT teams worldwide. Operate and manage successful managed public and private cloud service businesses, using VMware Cloud Director.

## Cloud Director Benefits 

### Operational Efficiency

VMware Cloud Director delivers secure, isolated, and elastic virtual datacenter compute, network, storage and security in a self-service model. Extreme infrastructure multi-tenancy, out of the box public and private cloud, easy application portfolios all combined with deep automation supports higher growth and operational savings.

### Monetization

VMware Cloud Director is service-ready on Day 1. Cloud providers can spin up infrastructure and application platform-level services to customers and enterprises in minutes, powered by natively integrated as well as ecosystem-powered solutions available via context-aware workflows.

![Tn woman looking at graphs](https://www.vmware.com/media/blt8c9a8aaca0ffd4ac/bltb5c4d16510f8d6ea/660d6e132a17800432148fc9/tn-woman-looking-at-graphs.jpg)

### Hybridity and Security

VMware Cloud Director cloud environments can serve as DR and backup targets with seamless workload mobility across on-prem and cloud. Enhanced security self-offerings from Layer 4 and Layer 7 distributed firewalling ensure customers security needs are met. NSX Advanced Load Balancer from Avi provides load balancing capabilities suitable for new hybrid applications and digital transformation initiatives.

## VMware Cloud Director Features

### Three-Tier Tenancy Model

VMware Cloud Director lets cloud providers design a sophisticated organizational hierarchy using its intuitive three-tier tenancy model. This allows for multiple layers with distinct administrative roles, including autonomous sub-provider organizations within a parent organization. [Learn More](https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/cloud-director/vmware-cloud-director/10-6/vmware-cloud-director-service-provider-portal-guide-10-6/getting-started-with-the-vcloud-director-service-provider-portal-admin/overview-of-vcloud-director-administration-admin.html)

### Data Solutions as a Service

Provide enhanced Data Solution Services through the VMware Cloud Director extension for VMware Data Services (DSE). The platform through DSE provides multi-tenant support for messaging and database software services.

### VMware Cloud Director Encryption Management Solution

Thales CipherTrust Manager seamlessly integrates Enterprise Key Management and 'Bring Your Own Encryption as a Service (BYO EaaS)' into VMware Cloud Director.

### Elastic Secure Virtual Datacenters

A policy-driven approach to compute, storage, networking and security ensures tenants have securely isolated virtual resources, independent role-based authentication, and fine-grained control of their public cloud services.

### Multi-Site Management

Stretch data centers across sites and geographies; monitor resources from an intuitive single-pane of glass with multi-site aggregate views. Also connect to existing dedicated vCenters for management and access or on-board into VMware Cloud Director.

### Thriving ISV Ecosystem

Leading vendors in Cloud Native, Backup such as Dell, Veeam, DRaaS, Security partners such as Palo Alto, and Storage vendors such as Cloudian, Dell ECS and AWS S3, integrate natively with VMware Cloud Director via our open extensibility framework empowering providers to deliver unique experiences and unlock more service opportunities.

### DRaaS Workload Protection

Deliver self-service tiered [disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS)](https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/live-recovery/cloud-director-availability/4-7/what-is-vcda.html) to your Cloud Director customers for on-premises to cloud and cloud to cloud. All customers with recent versions of vSphere can see DRaaS validated partners and easily deploy the appliance necessary to protect their on-premises workloads to your VMware Cloud Director clouds. [Learn More](https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/live-recovery/cloud-director-availability/4-7/what-is-vcda.html)

### Cloud Migration

Enable simple migration to the cloud with [VMware Cloud Director Availability](https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/live-recovery/cloud-director-availability/4-7/what-is-vcda.html) plugin for Cloud Director, offering self-service cold or warm migration to your Cloud Director clouds. Customers can drive their own cold or warm cloud migrations with no complex architecture, networking and security conversions, benefiting from a vSphere target endpoint.

### Operational Visibility and Insights

A refreshed dashboard and single pane of glass provide centralized multi-tenant [cloud management](https://www.vmware.com/topics/cloud-management) views. Leverage [VMware Cloud Foundation Operations](https://www.vmware.com/products/cloud-infrastructure/vcf-operations) advanced analytics, chargeback, and native integration into VMware Cloud Director for deep visibility and custom reporting of tenant environments.

### Dev Ready Infrastructure

VMware Cloud Director offers a developer-friendly platform to build and run apps without managing infrastructure. With Container Service Extension, it supports multi-tenant Kubernetes (TKG & TKG Integrated) and provides access to validated apps via Content Hub for fast VM or container-based deployments. [Learn More](https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/cloud-director/container-service-extension/4-2.html)

### Automation

With deep integration with leading automation tools and an open source vCD Terraform Provider, VMware Cloud Director enables Cloud Providers to automate complex infrastructure-as-code and tile UI driven workflows to deploy X-as-a-Service, all while maintaining access control and visibility.

### Enhanced Security

Boost the security of your virtual machines with the added support for Virtual Trusted Platform Module (vTPM) devices, providing an extra security layer for guest operating systems. By enabling vTPM, you can protect your virtual machines from unauthorized access, tampering, and other security threats. [Learn More](https://blogs.vmware.com/cloudprovider/2023/04/deep-dive-into-virtual-trusted-platform-module-vtpm-in-vcd.html)

### GPU as a Service

VMware Cloud Director delivers multi-tenant GPU services for customers seeking high performance compute for GPU specific applications and AI/ML apps on a VM or Tanzu clusters with [Nvidia AI Enterprise](https://www.nvidia.com/en-gb/data-center/products/ai-enterprise/). This can be complemented with relevant, supported and tuned NVIDIA AI Enterprise applications for AI/ML.

[Learn More](https://blogs.vmware.com/cloudprovider/2023/09/understanding-vgpu-functionality-with-vmware-cloud-director.html)

### Secure Cloud

VMware Cloud Director offers robust security features for enterprise-grade private and public cloud services. VCSPs can use [VMware vDefend Distributed Firewall](https://www.vmware.com/products/security/vdefend-distributed-firewall) to secure East-West traffic, define dynamic groups for automated protection, and deploy IDS/IPS with centralized analytics via NSX Intelligence. Workloads can be encrypted, and data is safeguarded across sites with integrated Disaster Recovery replication.

## VMware Cloud Director Extensibility

Discover boundless possibilities with VMware Cloud Director's extensibility features. Transform your operations, integrate flawlessly with your infrastructure, and revolutionize your organization with a click.

### [VMware Chargeback](https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/vcf/vcf-9-0-and-later/9-1/design/design-library/vcf-automation-deployment-models-9-x/chargeback-and-billing.html)

Optimize virtual infrastructure costs with VMware Chargeback. Analyze usage factors, allocate resources, and gain insights for informed decision-making.

### [App Launchpad](https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/cloud-director/vmware-cloud-director/10-5/vmware-cloud-director-service-provider-portal-guide-10-5/managing-organizations-admin/working-with-external-sources-for-application-images-admin.html)

Simplify app access and management in VMware Cloud Director with App Launchpad. Discover, launch, and manage apps from a user-friendly interface.

### [Object Storage Extension](https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/cloud-director/object-storage-extension/3-1/installing-configuring-and-upgrading-vmware-cloud-director-object-storage-extension-3-1.html)

Optimize storage infrastructure, manage unstructured data, and enhance data accessibility and retrieval with Object Storage Extension.

### [Container Service Extension](https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/cloud-director/container-service-extension/4-2.html)

Use Container Service Extension to easily deploy, manage and scale containerized apps to streamline development and unlock containerization benefits.

### [Data Solution Extension](https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/cloud-director/extension-for-data-solutions/1-6/install-upgrade-and-configure-vmware-cloud-director-extension-for-data-solutions.html)

Expand cloud consumption capabilities with the VMware Cloud Director extension for VMware Data Solutions.

### [VMware Lab Platform](https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/other/vmware-lab-platform/lab-platform/getting-started-with-vmware-lab-platform.html)

A solution that delivers hands-on virtual IT labs and classrooms. VMware Lab Platform can now be added as an extension to VMware Cloud Director.

## Building Cloud-Ready Applications

### Open to DevOps

Addressing the needs of DevOps teams in customers; provision and manage ‘[Infrastructure as code](https://www.vmware.com/topics/infrastructure-as-code)’ services with [VCD Terraform Provider](https://www.terraform.io/docs/providers/vcd/index.html) appealing to developers to be able to deliver infrastructure directly from code. Complement functionality with capabilities provided by Python and VCD API as well as Object Storage API and App Launchpad APIs then developers have access to everything they need all through code.

### Differentiation

VMware Cloud Director-based environments carry the “Cloud Verified” certification, awarded to the most capable and innovative VMware Cloud Providers in the world. VMware Cloud Director is deeply extensible and customizable for cloud providers to deliver their unique themes, branding, and services to their customers.

### Dev Ready Cloud

Support for Tanzu Kubernetes Grid for vSphere and multicloud with the Container Service Extension plugin deliver native K8s Clusters or Tanzu Kubernetes Grid Clusters as a service (deploy, upgrade, patching and maintenance) all managed via UI and API. Including enhanced backup services, load balancing and the VMware Cloud Marketplace applications (whether VMs or Containers) in the App Launchpad, Cloud Providers can deliver CI/CD tooling, registry and infrastructure applications as well as K8s services.

> TeraGo immediately saw the value of VMware Cloud Director upon its release. At the time, we were looking for solutions with multi-tenancy, self-service, pay-as-you-go and Cloud Director enabled all of those models.  
> -- Mohamed Jivraj, Product Manager, TeraGo

> One of the most important benefits we’ve found with VMware Cloud Director is that its rest API is really fantastic and allows our customers to do programmatic integrations with their systems and products.  
> -- Matthew Wallace, VP of Products, Faction

### VMware Cloud Director Partner Training

Access free partner training videos on how to monetize VMware Cloud Director and how to package services and price competitively to ensure you future proof your offering. [ACCESS TRAINING](https://brocade.csod.com/ui/lms-learner-search/search?pageNumber=1&query=VMware%20Cloud%20Director&typeIds=8&subjectIds=792&languageIds=1)

## Resources

### [Find a Partner](https://www.broadcom.com/how-to-buy/software-partners)

Use the Broadcom [Partner Portal](https://partnerportal.broadcom.com/) to quickly find a VMware partner near you.

### [Blogs](https://blogs.vmware.com/cloudprovider/partner-connect/vmware-cloud-provider)

Read the latest announcements and news about VMware Cloud Provider.

### [Fortanix Self Defending Key Management service solution brief](https://resources.fortanix.com/hubfs/VMware_lp/Fortanix-SDKMS_The_Go-to-Solution_for_VM_Encryption.pdf?hsLang=en)

### [Rubrik Cloud Data Management (CDM) for VMware Cloud Director Whitepaper](https://www.rubrik.com/content/dam/rubrik/en/resources/white-paper/Rubrik-and-VMware-vCloud-Director-REFERENCE-ARCHITECTURE.pdf)

### [What’s New with VMware Cloud Director 10.6.1](https://blogs.vmware.com/cloudprovider/2025/02/vmware-cloud-director-10-6-1-is-here-whats-new.html)

[SEE ALL RESOURCES](https://www.vmware.com/resources/resource-center?product[]=VMware%20Cloud%20Director)

## Also of Interest

- [VMware Cloud Service Providers | Partner-Managed Services](https://www.vmware.com/solutions/partner-managed-services)
- [Cloud Infrastructure](https://www.vmware.com/products/cloud-infrastructure)
- [What is Bot Management?](https://www.vmware.com/topics/bot-management)