VMware Cloud Foundation consists of VMware vSphere, vSAN, NSX and “SDDC Manager”.

SDDC Manager will manage the lifecycle of the different components of VCF and can also manage the lifecycle of “add-ons” like VMware Horizon, VMware vRealize Suite, vRealize Operations and vRealize Log Insight.

Licensing is per-CPU but you’ll need to contact your reseller about how to buy it as while you can’t buy “SDDC manager” on its own you can reuse existing licenses for VCF – and vCenter isn’t included in VCF.

You can buy VCF pre-installed on VxRack or just buy vSAN Ready hardware and roll your own. You’ll want to check your switches against the VCF HCL also.

Who should buy VCF: anyone who wants vSphere/vSAN/NSX but doesn’t want to install the components themselves or manage patching them.