Our Biggest Platform Release in Years: Virtual Providers and Virtual Machines

Cycle.io is taking a giant leap forward in 2025. Today, we're announcing the biggest platform release in years -- a release that catapults Cycle into a new era of hybrid infrastructure orchestration and cements its status as a true alternative to both Kubernetes and VMware.

Now, with two massively impactful features: Virtual Providers and Virtual Machines.

Together with Cycle's core capabilities, these features enable teams to deploy infrastructure and run workloads of any kind -- all managed through a unified control plane.

Introducing Virtual Providers

Virtual Providers make it effortless to bring any server into your Cycle cluster. Provide basic network details, generate a custom ISO, and boot — the server instantly joins your cluster and connects to Cycle's control plane.

This turns anything from on-prem data centers to VMware environments to homelabs into fully orchestrated Cycle environments. No more needing native support from cloud providers or building complex integrations -- just bring your compute, and Cycle handles the rest.

The Cycle platform manages the orchestration layer, while you own and operate the compute. Your data never leaves your infrastructure — only telemetry and operational metadata flow to Cycle's control plane.

Virtual Machines on Cycle

Containers aren't always enough. With new support for Virtual Machines, Cycle now lets users run VMs alongside containers and functions on the same infrastructure nodes.

Deploying a VM is as easy as deploying a container. Provide a raw disk, QCOW2, or ISO image, and Cycle handles the KVM setup, resource scheduling, DNS-based service discovery, metrics, and more.

This means you can migrate legacy apps, maintain hybrid stacks, and even run full operating systems inside your Cycle environments -- all while using the same platform, the same dashboard, and the same deployment models.

Hybrid Infrastructure, Without the Hassle

The future is hybrid, and Cycle now delivers an all-in-one platform for hybrid infrastructure:

• Deploy across cloud, on-prem, and colo with one consistent OS and workflow
• Mix and match containers, virtual machines, and functions in the same environments
• Use any infrastructure, anywhere -- even hardware you already own

Unlike most platforms where "hybrid" means maintaining different Terraform scripts for each environment, Cycle delivers true consistency. Same OS, same control plane, same deployment model -- no matter where you run.

See The Features In Action

Want to see how easy it is to setup a Virtual Provider? Check out my demo below:

Additionally, Alex Mattoni, our Head of Engineering, recorded an overview of virtual machines:

Learn more at cycle.io/docs.

The Road Ahead

This release marks a new chapter for Cycle. We're building toward a future where infrastructure is easy to manage, hybrid by default, and developer-friendly. With more automation, observability, and scaling features launching soon, Cycle is continuing its mission to be the all-in-one infrastructure platform DevOps teams have been waiting for.

If you're looking for a better Kubernetes alternative or a clean break from VMware, we'd love to have a conversation.

💡 Interested in trying the Cycle platform? Create your account today! Want to drop in and have a chat with the Cycle team? We'd love to have you join our public Cycle Slack community!