Broadcom has signed a 10-year agreement with Japanese telecommunications operator NTT DOCOMO to upgrade and strengthen its private cloud infrastructure using VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF).
The agreement covers software licensing, technical assistance, and maintenance support for VMware products, including VCF. According to Broadcom, it is the company’s first 10-year comprehensive VMware software agreement in Japan.
The partnership builds on a collaboration that began in 2019, when the two companies started developing and operating DOCOMO’s private cloud around VMware technology. The extended agreement aims to improve infrastructure reliability, security and operational efficiency as the telecom operator adapts to evolving technology requirements, growing AI adoption and increasingly sophisticated cyber threats.
Under the agreement, Broadcom and DOCOMO will focus on three priorities: service availability, cybersecurity and faster service delivery.
Focus on infrastructure resilience and security
Using VCF, DOCOMO plans to strengthen system maintenance and upgrades while minimising service interruptions. Unified management of servers, storage and networking will support flexible capacity expansion, while automated resource placement and scaling will help maintain service quality during traffic surges.
Broadcom will also provide VCF Forte Support, which offers its highest-level service-level objectives, to support continuous infrastructure operations.
On the security front, the companies plan to strengthen patch management, anomaly detection, and AI-driven operations. Continuous system visibility and collaboration with dedicated Support Account Managers and Technical Account Managers are expected to help DOCOMO identify potential issues earlier and respond to emerging threats more quickly.
Common platform for virtual machines and containers
The agreement also aims to streamline application development and deployment. DOCOMO will use VMware vSphere Kubernetes Service (VKS), the Kubernetes runtime built into VCF, to run virtual machines and containers on a common platform.
Automation across environment provisioning, development, testing and release processes is expected to shorten service delivery cycles and help DOCOMO respond more quickly to changing customer requirements.
Hiroshi Ishimaru, General Manager, Service Design Department, NTT DOCOMO, said the agreement would strengthen technical collaboration with Broadcom while helping the operator maintain reliable digital services and respond more flexibly to technology and market changes.
Paul Turner, Chief Product Officer, VMware Cloud Foundation Division, Broadcom, said the partnership would build on seven years of technical collaboration. He added that VCF would provide a common foundation for virtual machines, containers and AI workloads, with engineering teams from both companies working together to support secure and reliable service delivery.
Looking ahead, Broadcom and DOCOMO plan to evolve the private cloud into a platform supporting virtual machines, containers and AI workloads, with greater automation and AI-driven operations. Their longer-term collaboration will also account for emerging technologies and infrastructure developments, including 6G and the Innovative Optical and Wireless Network (IOWN) initiative.