Making the Most of Your VMware Investment, Part 2

Unlocking AI-Ready Data with VMware Tanzu Data Intelligence

Enterprises want fast, governed access to all their data—structured, semi-structured, unstructured, and streaming—so they can power analytics, apps, and AI. VMware Tanzu Data Intelligence (TDI) is Broadcom’s new data lakehouse platform for private and hybrid cloud that delivers unified, low-latency access to multimodal data at scale, with governance built in. In this article, we explain what TDI is, why it matters, and how ATS recommends activating it—especially if you’ve just entered a multi-year VMware agreement.

What is Tanzu Data Intelligence?

Announced at VMware Explore 2025, TDI is positioned as an enterprise lakehouse that integrates ingestion, streaming pipelines, query engines, intelligent caching, and governance—so data and AI teams can discover, govern, and serve data from a single platform across private/hybrid environments. In Broadcom’s words, it provides “unified, low-latency access to multimodal data at scale” to accelerate analytics, applications, and agentic AI.

Key capabilities highlighted by Broadcom/VMware:

• Multimodal data: support for structured, semi-structured, unstructured, and streaming data in one platform.

• Unified access with low latency: lake + warehouse patterns with intelligent caching and high-concurrency querying to serve both apps and AI.

• Governance & security: built for private/hybrid cloud with centralized controls to keep data compliant as it moves from source to model to app.

• AI/GenAI readiness: positioned to drive analytics, app delivery, and agentic AI; launched alongside Tanzu Platform 10.3 to streamline AI integration.

If you’ve struggled with a patchwork of lakes, warehouses, and streaming tools, TDI’s promise is one governed plane for data activation—on infrastructure you control.

Why this matters now

Two forces are colliding for ATS customers:

1. AI is moving from pilot to production. That demands a consistent, governed way to feed data into models and applications without creating new silos. TDI’s lakehouse approach is purpose-built for that.

2. VMware commitments are multi-year. Many organizations are entering five-year VMware agreements. Rather than treat that as “lock-in,” use it as a planning horizon to activate the advanced capabilities you now have a stable platform to run—TDI included. (See Part 1 for how vDefend secures the platform; TDI builds on that by unlocking governed data for AI/apps.)

   
   

What’s new vs. “traditional” data stacks

Traditional stacks separate the data lake (cheap, flexible storage) from the warehouse (performance & SQL) and bolt on separate streaming, catalog, and governance tools. TDI’s value proposition is to pull those threads together:

• Ingestion & streaming pipelines flow into a single governed plane.

• Query & serving layers support high concurrency and low-latency access for both analytics and apps.

• Governance remains consistent as data is transformed and consumed—critical for regulated industries.

Third-party coverage from InfoWorld, Network World, CRN, and StorageReview echoes the same themes: lakehouse + governance + AI enablement as the core of TDI’s positioning.

Where it fits in your VMware stack

TDI complements—and is deliberately launched alongside—Broader VMware pillars:

• VMware Cloud Foundation 9 (VCF 9) as the standardized private-cloud substrate (Part 3).

• vDefend (Part 1) to secure east-west traffic, segment sensitive workloads, and harden the environment where data pipelines and AI jobs run.

• Tanzu Platform 10.3 to help app and AI teams ship faster on a governed platform.

This is less “another tool” and more a data operating model for the VMware environment you’re already standardizing on.

Use-case patterns we see resonating

1) Analytics & BI without silos: Give business teams sub-second access to curated data products while maintaining lineage and controls—no more brittle exports across warehouses and lakes.

2) Private AI / agentic AI: Feed RAG and agentic workflows from governed lakehouse data—close to your apps, on infrastructure you control—reducing data-exposure and egress concerns.

3) Operational apps that need fresh data: Serve low-latency, high-concurrency read paths for modern applications (customer 360, personalization, IoT ops) from the same platform that powers analytics.

4) Hybrid data strategy: Use TDI as the control plane for data that resides across private and hybrid environments—unified access and governance even as sources span sites.

How ATS recommends you activate TDI (practical plan)

Step 1 — Outcome framing (2–3 weeks)

• Identify 2–3 high-value outcomes (e.g., faster customer insights, AI-assisted ops, governed data products for one BU).

• Inventory sources (DBs, files, streams) and compliance constraints.

• Map quick-win data products that will prove value in <90 days. Why now: aligns your five-year VMware horizon to tangible business outcomes in year one.

Step 2 — Landing zone & governance (4–6 weeks)

• Stand up a TDI landing zone on VCF with access controls, lineage, and catalog.

• Define policies for sensitive domains (HIPAA/PCI/FERPA as applicable).

• Establish SLAs for latency, concurrency, and refresh windows.

Step 3 — Build two “data products”

• Example: a governed Customer 360 dataset + an operations telemetry product (ready for BI and RAG).

• Wire pipelines (batch + streaming), index for query, and validate latency.

Step 4 — Private AI pilot

• Connect one data product to an internal RAG/agentic use case (support copilot, knowledge search, or anomaly triage).

• Measure impact (response accuracy, time-to-insight, analyst hours saved).

Step 5 — Operate & expand

• Fold into change management; track usage, lineage, and policy adherence.

• Add more products/teams each quarter; integrate cost and performance telemetry.

ATS provides an enablement track parallel to the build: data product ownership, governance council, and platform SRE runbooks tailored to TDI on VCF.

Licensing & Positioning (Quick Clarity)

VMware Tanzu Data Intelligence (TDI) is a new, subscription-licensed product in the Tanzu portfolio. It is not bundled automatically with VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) or other Tanzu components—you purchase it separately through your VMware/Broadcom agreement or Partner Connect provider.

Broadcom positions TDI for private- and hybrid-cloud customers that need a governed, low-latency data platform for analytics, applications, and AI workloads. The subscription model gives organizations flexibility to scale usage (by units or cores) as data volumes and AI projects grow.

For customers entering new multi-year VMware enterprise agreements, this is an ideal time to evaluate TDI as part of your long-term roadmap: you can plan capacity, budget, and enablement together with your existing VMware investments.

Pair TDI with VMware Cloud Foundation 9 as your private-cloud foundation, and vDefend to secure data pipelines and lateral movement within that environment.(See Part 1 – Securing with vDefend and Part 3 – Scaling with VCF 9 for more on those layers.)

The five-year opportunity

If you’ve just renewed or are entering a five-year VMware agreement, TDI gives you a concrete path to turn that commitment into differentiated capability:

• Standardize on VCF 9 + vDefend (Part 1) for secure, automated operations.

• Use TDI to unify and govern data now, so AI and app teams ship faster in 2026—on a platform you already trust.

Next Read: Making the Most of Your VMware Investment, Part 3

Call to action

ATS can help you stand up a TDI landing zone and deliver two governed data products in 90 days—aligned to your compliance needs and AI roadmap. Ready to turn data into advantage?

👉 Contact ATS to schedule a Tanzu Data Intelligence discovery workshop.