Top 5 VMware Explore 2025 Sessions (AI + Spring Edition)

VMware Explore 2025: Why This Year Feels Different

VMware Explore 2025 is more than just a tech event, it's where infrastructure meets innovation, and where architects and developers alike shape the next generation of cloud and AI-powered applications.

This year, I'm laser-focused on three tracks: Spring, Tanzu AI Solutions, and the VMware Private AI Foundation with NVIDIA. These technologies are transforming how we build, scale, and secure intelligent enterprise platforms. Below, I’ve curated my top five must-attend sessions, all designed to help you turn big ideas into real-world, production-ready outcomes.

My Top 5 Session Picks for Explore 2025

1. Bootiful Spring AI [SPRB1964LV]
​📅 Tuesday, Aug 26 | 2:15 PM – 3:00 PM PDT
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Join this fast-paced, code-heavy session to explore how Spring AI enables portable, multi-model integration across inference engines. You’ll see how to build agentic systems, leverage Model Context Protocol (MCP), and modernize your enterprise AI app stack—all through Spring Boot. Perfect for developers and architects ready to go from prompt to production.

2. A Path to Production for AI Agents with VMware Tanzu Platform [MODB1510LV]
​📅 Wednesday, Aug 27 | 12:45 PM – 1:30 PM PDT
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AI agents aren’t just hype—they’re operational now. This session walks through everything needed to deploy your own AI agents using Tanzu Platform: LLMs, vector databases, agent registries, and Spring AI for orchestration. You’ll see a live demo of an AI agent interacting with the platform itself—proving it’s not just theory, it’s shipping code.

3. Building Secure Private AI Deep Dive [INVB1432LV]
​📅 Wednesday, Aug 27 | 2:00 PM – 2:45 PM PDT
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Security matters more than ever as enterprises move from pilot to production with GenAI. Learn how VMware vDefend and the Private AI Foundation with NVIDIA work together to provide deep segmentation, policy-based isolation, and runtime threat detection for AI workloads—all within your existing VCF environment.

4. Spring Into MCP [SPRB1965LV]
​📅 Tuesday, Aug 26 | 3:30 PM – 4:15 PM PDT
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This session is pure gold for Spring developers integrating AI. Get hands-on with the official Java SDK for Model Context Protocol, learn how to expose and consume MCP services, and build AI-enabled clients and servers inside Spring Boot apps. A true deep-dive on how AI becomes part of your software—not an afterthought.

5. Real-World Lessons in Rightsizing VMware Cloud Foundation for On-Premises AI Workloads [INVB1300LV]
​📅 Wednesday, Aug 27 | 10:15 AM – 11:00 AM PDT
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Frank Denneman and Johan van Amersfoort bring practical experience and tactical design knowledge to this session. Learn how to size VCF 9.0 environments for GPU-hungry workloads, how inference latency and concurrency affect infra design, and how to communicate AI sizing trade-offs with business leaders and ISVs. This is one of my most anticipated sessions.

Final Thoughts

If you’re attending VMware Explore 2025 and your focus is AI, cloud-native development, or infrastructure modernization, these five sessions will ground you in what’s next. The convergence of Spring, Tanzu, and Private AI isn't coming, it’s already here. These sessions offer the roadmap.

If you can’t make it in person, follow along on VirtualizationVelocity.com or on Twitter/X during the show, I’ll be blogging and sharing insights live from the Venetian show floor.

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