VMware vSphere Kubernetes Service 3.6: Making Enterprise Kubernetes Safer, More Flexible, and Easier to Operate

At a Glance: What’s New in VKS 3.6 Kubernetes 1.35, Built for Enterprise Operations Smoother Upgrades and Safer Day-2 Operations Performance and Data-Intensive Workloads Security, Compliance, and Governance Platform UX and Ecosystem Enablement Your Network, Your Choice Your Firewall, Your Choice Your OS, Your Choice Kubernetes, with Fewer Surprises Resources Available Now: Coming Soon to VMware Blogs: Upstream Kubernetes and Open Source References: Discover more from VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) Blog Related Articles Newly Updated Technical Guides: MS SQL Server and ADDS on VMware Cloud Foundation Advanced Cyber Compliance: Security, Compliance, and Resilience for VCF Implementing Cross-Region Replication with Harbor in VMware Cloud Foundation As Kubernetes adoption matures inside the enterprise, the challenges platform teams face have shifted. Standing up clusters is no longer the challenge. The real work begins after day one: upgrading clusters safely, operating them predictably, and supporting workloads like databases and regulated applications without fragile scripts or one-off exceptions. With the latest release of VMware vSphere Kubernetes Service (VKS) 3.6, we focused squarely on these realities. Rather than introducing a long list of disconnected features, this release advances the platform across a small set of operational themes that matter to platform engineers and Kubernetes administrators who are running Kubernetes in production at scale. VKS 3.6 introduces enhancements to enterprise operations, performance, and ecosystem flexibility: An open, extensible networking ecosystem – A supported path for partner networking add-ons allows Container Network Interface (CNI) plugins to integrate natively with VKS while staying within lifecycle and support boundaries. Performance tuning for data-intensive and latency-sensitive workloads – Declarative TuneD profiles enable safe kernel and sysctl tuning for databases and high-throughput applications without unsupported host customization. Enterprise OS choice with support for RHEL – Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) nodes, including mixed-OS clusters. VKS 3.6 adds support for Kubernetes version 1.35, continuing Broadcom’s commitment to delivering CNCF-certified Kubernetes that is designed for enterprise use. As with previous releases, Broadcom provides 24-month extended support per Kubernetes version, with overlapping version support. This allows large organizations to move teams forward on their own timelines without forcing fleet-wide upgrades or compressed maintenance windows. Some notable highlights from the Kubernetes 1.35 release include: Configurable concurrency for StatefulSet rolling updates with maxUnavailable – Platform teams can now take multiple Pods offline during StatefulSet upgrades, controlling disruption for stateful workloads while shortening rollout times.