---
# source: src/content/solutions/en/vmware/vmware-cloud-foundation/vks.md
# route:  /en/solutions/vmware/vmware-cloud-foundation/vks/
title: vSphere Kubernetes Service
tags: [containers, virtualization]
vendors: [vmware]
summary: Kubernetes inside the vSphere stack. If you can run vSphere, you can run a container platform on it.
photoNeed: "A vSphere or VCF console on a real screen at soulTec: a cluster view, a running task, an inventory tree, so the reader should recognise the UI"
stub: false
draft: false
kind: product
formerly: vSphere with Tanzu
acronym: VKS
editions: [vvf, vcf]
addon: false
sourceNote: "Broadcom, VMware Cloud Foundation 9.1 and VMware vSphere Foundation 9.1: Feature Comparison & Upgrade Paths, read 2026-08-28"
vendorName: VMware vSphere Kubernetes Service
status: current
---

## What it is

vSphere Kubernetes Service, formerly vSphere with Tanzu, puts Kubernetes into the vSphere
stack. Containers run on the platform that is already there and are managed with the same
tools.

## Why that is the point

Because the alternative is a second platform. Standing up a separate Kubernetes estate
means a second operating model, second monitoring, second set of permissions, and a second
team who know it at three in the morning. With vSphere skills the way in here is much
shorter.

## What it is for

Two cases, and the second gets overlooked.

Development teams need Kubernetes clusters to build and test containerised applications.
That is the obvious one.

The other: organisations that write no software of their own still cannot avoid it, because
third-party software increasingly ships only as a container image. The question stops being
whether you run containers and becomes what you run them on.

## What to watch

Kubernetes moves complexity, it does not remove it. Storage classes, networking and access
rights want deciding before the first cluster exists, or the first use case decides them for
every one after it.