In a sign of increasing enterprise interest in Arm-based processors, VMware has released a preview of ESX running on Arm-based servers, an early step in the company’s efforts to expand support beyond traditional x86 infrastructure.
The VMware ESX on Arm Tech preview indicates that VMware’s core hypervisor can now operate on systems powered by Arm processors from Ampere and NVIDIA. Supported hardware includes HPE and Gigabyte servers equipped with Ampere Altra and AltraMax chips, along with Supermicro systems using NVIDIA Grace processors.
Arm-based computing is attracting greater attention as enterprises search for improved energy efficiency and infrastructure optimized for AI workloads.
“ARM-based systems have proven their cost-effectiveness running production workloads in hyperscaler environments,” Bernard Golden, a leading cloud computing expert, told Techstrong.it. “As a result, large customers want to extend those favorable economics into their on-prem environments. VMware’s move to support ARM environments shows it’s responding to market demands.”
Future Directions in Virtualization
VMware’s Arm preview remains limited in scope. Several VMware technologies are absent, including vSAN storage, NSX, Fiber-Channel, and NVMe-over-TCP. Additionally, VMware recommends that Arm-based clusters operate independently from x86 environments, requiring a vCenter deployment running on traditional hardware.
Yet the release offers an early indication of where virtualization platforms may be headed as processor diversity expands across cloud and AI infrastructure.
VMware additionally updated its desktop virtualization products to communicate with Arm-based ESX deployments remotely. The latest versions of VMware Workstation and Fusion can now interoperate directly with Arm-hosted virtual machines, allowing admins to manage Arm environments through VMware tooling.
The company has discussed Arm support publicly for several years, though adoption has progressed cautiously. Enterprise customers remain heavily invested in x86 infrastructure, and shifting large virtualization environments to a different processor architecture involves substantial challenges, from application validation to hardware replacement.
Hyperscalers Develop Arm
Hyperscalers including AWS, Microsoft and Google have increasingly promoted internally developed Arm processors as lower-power alternatives to conventional x86 systems. These chips are often touted as offering stronger performance-per-watt ratios, an important metric as data centers face rising power consumption tied to AI expansion.
The growing focus on efficiency has elevated Arm from a niche architecture associated primarily with smartphones and embedded systems into a more serious contender for enterprise compute workloads.
Broadcom, which acquired VMware in 2023, appears to view that trend as strategically important. VMware is navigating significant customer scrutiny following Broadcom’s restructuring of VMware licensing and subscription models. Since the acquisition, some enterprise customers and smaller IT shops have criticized pricing increases and changes to product packaging.
Despite the complaints, VMware continues to position itself as foundational infrastructure for large enterprise and cloud deployments, particularly those supporting AI applications and hybrid cloud operations. Arm’s role in that strategy will likely take on greater importance as enterprises redesign infrastructure around power efficiency and specialized AI compute.
VMware has not provided a timeline for a production release of ESX on Arm. For now, the software remains a limited preview intended primarily for testing and experimentation.
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Originally published by Techstrong.IT. Republished with attribution.
