Manufacturing IT vs. the Full VCF Stack: How to Do More With Less (and Still Sleep at Night)

In the world of manufacturing IT, there's a golden rule: if it ain't broke, don't upgrade it into oblivion. But with VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9 rolling in and Broadcom tightening the screws on licensing, many IT teams find themselves staring down the barrel of a full-stack deployment they never asked for—complete with NSX, vSAN, and a management plane built for a private cloud they don't need. That's the reality for many mid-sized manufacturers right now. They're not cloud-native darlings, they're uptime-obsessed pragmatists. The shop floor needs stability, not shiny complexity. So when VVF (vSphere Foundation) starts looking like a dead-end, and the only alternative is VCF, the big question becomes: how "minimal" can you make VCF 9 and still survive? ## The VCF Dilemma: All-In or All-Out? Let's be clear: VCF isn't inherently bad. It's a powerful tool, especially for organizations that want a full-on private cloud experience. But for manufacturing teams just trying to keep their legacy apps and SCADA systems humming along 24/7, it can feel like deploying a spaceship to fix a bicycle. One user summed it up best: "We don't need a 'Private Cloud,' we need a stable virtualization platform." That sentiment echoes across the board. These teams don't want to rebuild their network around NSX or shift storage to vSAN. Their VLANs and iSCSI setups work just fine. They just want to renew licensing without rewriting their entire infrastructure. ## So, Can You Run a Lite Version of VCF 9? The short answer? Yes. But like anything in enterprise IT, it's complicated. You can deploy VCF without NSX or vSAN, and just use vSphere and vCenter. That approach is being taken by plenty of shops already. As one user explained: "By purchasing VCF you receive licenses for each product… So if you want to limit your deployment to just this, you can." You'll still need to run the VCF Operations (VCfOps) appliance to satisfy the licensing, but you don't have to turn on all the bells and whistles. Think of it as buying a Swiss Army knife and only using the knife and screwdriver. Here's a breakdown of what's really required: **vSphere and vCenter**: Obviously. **VCF Operations Appliance**: Needed for host and vCenter licensing. **NSX and vSAN**: Optional in practice, though "preferred" by Broadcom. ## NSX: The Necessary Evil? The most heated debates always circle back to NSX. There's fear, confusion, and frankly, a lot of frustration. Many IT teams ask: Do we have to change our MTU settings? Do we need VTEPs, VXLAN, Geneve tunnels, or jumbo frames on every switch? Turns out, you don't. You can run VLAN-backed port groups with NSX and avoid re-architecting your entire data center. That means you're technically compliant with VCF expectations without overhauling your network. As one user noted: "You realize you can just run boring VLAN backed port groups with NSX unless I missed something." Of course, jumbo frames are still recommended, and yes—if you use NSX Edges, you'll probably have to tweak MTU settings. But if you skip micro-segmentation and overlay networking, the setup becomes more tolerable. Still, this begs the question: why deploy NSX at all if you're not going to use its main features? The answer depends on your licensing model. Some admins opt to "shelfware" NSX and vSAN, keep them installed but idle, and move on. It's not elegant, but it's legal. ## Edge Use Case: Your Secret Weapon If you're running smaller, distributed sites—think factories, not data centers—then VCF Edge might be your escape hatch. VCF Edge is a lighter SKU intended for these exact situations. It's priced below the full Data Center bundle and acknowledges that you won't deploy the full stack. As one user put it: "VCF Edge Cores are essentially the same except with ELUA differences." A solid deployment strategy would be: **Centralize your VCF stack at your HQ.** **Deploy small, single-host or minimal clusters at edge sites.** **Use the centralized Ops cluster for licensing and lifecycle management.** This lets you "check the box" for compliance without shoving a full VCF deployment down the throat of every remote site. ## So, What's the Catch? Here's where reality bites: even a "minimal" VCF deployment isn't free. You'll need hardware overhead for the management appliances. You'll need time to install, configure, and maintain VCF Ops. And yes, you'll be paying more than you would with a standalone vSphere/vCenter setup. One user nailed the pain point: "Shelfware everything but ESX, vCenter, and the license server… but with bigger bills." That's the hidden cost of VCF—spending budget on software you're not using just to stay in the game. ## What the Community's Doing Right Now Across the board, we're seeing these approaches: **Minimal Deployment**: VCF license for compliance, only deploy vSphere/vCenter, skip NSX/vSAN. **Shelfware Strategy**: Install NSX and vSAN, but don't use them. They just exist to satisfy support/license checks. **VCF Edge at HQ**: Keep management overhead in one place, centralize operations, and let plants run lean. **Hybrid Planning**: Maintain current infrastructure, while evaluating alternatives like Hyper-V or Nutanix for future transitions. ## Final Thoughts: Fight the Stack, Not Your Sanity If you're in manufacturing IT, you already have enough to worry about—compliance, uptime, aging PLCs, and "that one Windows XP VM that still controls the conveyor belt." The last thing you need is a forced cloud-native retooling of your environment. VCF 9 may be the new normal, but you don't have to go full-stack to stay compliant. Run what you need, ignore what you don't, and keep your eyes on practical, manageable solutions that fit your reality—not the vendor's roadmap. Because in the end, it's not about having the flashiest infrastructure. It's about making sure the factory keeps running and the lights stay on. And if that means doing more with less, then so be it.