Data Center in 2026: what changed
Nutanix AOS 7.0 leaves support and VMware Cloud Foundation reached 9.1.1. Dell and HPE servers with VMware or Nutanix: supplied and integrated.
What changed this year for a two-site private cloud, and what to put in your requirement.¹
Every date comes from the vendor's or publisher's own page. Third-party reports are marked.
1. Nutanix AOS 7.0 leaves support
AOS 7.0 left maintenance on March 31, 2026 and leaves support on December 31, 2026. The design's floor is AOS 7.5, AHV 11.0 and Prism Central pc.7.5; the current release, AOS 7.6 with AHV 11.2 and pc.7.6, came out on July 27, 2026.
Rows of 1U servers in open racks, behind a glass partition, in an Equinix data center. From ServeTheHome's December 2025 tour.
2. VMware Cloud Foundation 9.1, then 9.1.1
Broadcom released VCF 9.1 on May 12, 2026, renaming VMware Live Recovery as Protection and Recovery, and VCF 9.1.1 on September 3, 2026. The design now requires 9.1.1 or later.
Servers racked and connected to their coolant lines, the kind of host a VMware Cloud Foundation private cloud runs on. From ServeTheHome's film.
3. Security logs over TLS
VCF 9.1 blocks unencrypted syslog on port 514. The design sends security logs over TLS to the buyer's collector, and its test plan checks it.
A rack frame under build on the floor of Dell's AI rack factory, with a technician at a test station behind it. From ServeTheHome's film.
4. Replication, and the servers
Moving vSphere Replication to 9.1 means reconfiguring every replication as enhanced replication; the design keeps a 15-minute recovery point between pods. The Dell PowerEdge R7725 and HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen12 are kept; Dell has announced the R7725's successor, the R7825, for 2027.
The direct liquid cooling module inside a Dell PowerEdge R7725. From Dell's own film.
What this means for a buyer
Which platform runs the private cloud is decided by our first comparison, VMware: Stay or Leave; this design fixes the versions any of them must meet.
Read the full blueprint, or request a quote for Data Center.