My First VMworld
This was my first ever VMworld considering I have held my VCP and been a member of the vExpert community for several years. When I was telling people this they were shocked. It just so happens that over the course of the last 10 years I have either been transitioning or just not in the list to attend. I wanted to put this post together really to one remind me of what went on but also to give some insight into what sessions were attended if anyone wanted to take a watch when they become available.
Saturday
It did not disappoint! I arrived in Las Vegas on Saturday night, a night that could have gone down in history if Conor McGregor had of beat Mayweather in that hyped up boxing contest. Anyway, back to the job in hand. Arrived.
Sunday
Sunday started with an early start, headed over to the golf course for some golfing action with the community, vGolf founded by my colleague Anthony Spiteri I was roped into playing at 7am, but it was great. 9 holes before 9am in Las Vegas in the middle of summer was bearable and we managed only 2 over par for the course. Got to meet some great people within the community.
Fast forward to Sunday evening and the show floor opens. Nothing like this have I experienced before the masses literally running to booths to gather the first and best swag from the event it was quite an experience.
Monday
Prior to the event I had been planning on attending sessions as well as everything else that was going on around the show floor, things like booth sessions that I had been asked to present and some press and analyst interviews. Monday kicked off with an interview with Anthony and Trend Micro. It was also the first Veeam breakout session, it covered the the vision as well as what will coming.
A Deep Dive into vSphere 6.5 Core Storage Features and Functionality – Speakers(s) Cody Hosterman, Cormac Hogan
I then recorded a short video with Quantum around how Veeam and Quantum have some great integrations for their DXi backup appliance, more will come on this later.
VMTN Community session available now on the vBrownBag youtube channel – vSAN in VMC on AWS environment – Speakers(s) Mostafa Khalil
VMware Cloud on AWS: Storage Deep Dive – Speakers(s) Ben Meadowcroft, Matthew Amdur
As a member of the NetApp A Team I was invited to sit on the HCI panel on the NetApp booth, this was great to have a say on their upcoming HCI offering, different in my opinion because of the SolidFire OS, lots of great features here that will be available here moving forward. A mature offering, couple that with the ability to add compute and storage separately it makes for a SOLID solution. Recording link to come soon, I sat on this panel again on Tuesday with different panellists.
Veeam Availability Suite v10: A Deeper Dive of What’s New [PBO3309BUS]
Tuesday
Kicked things off with a press and analyst breakfast, where the Veeam CEO Peter McKay ran through with the audience the latest vision from Veeam and where things are heading. It was great to not only have the press and analysts in the audience but also the Veeam Vanguards that were attending the show.
AWS Native Services Integration with VMware Cloud on AWS: Technical Deep Dive – Speakers(s) Paul Bockelman, Aarthi Raju
It was then my turn to head over the VMTN Community Theatre – These are the clones you are looking for!
Automate the Automation: Streamline the Installation, Configuration, and Upgrade of VMware vRealize Automation – Speakers(s) Vasil Mitov, Evgeny Aronov
Tuesday night saw the legendary Veeam party take place at Hakkasan in the MGM Grand and it was not a disappointment although my first ever VMworld breakout session was the following day at 830am so that was tough going! It was a great night and hats off to all the event staff that made that happen, heard numbers of 3500 people getting through the door.
Wednesday
Implementing Advanced vSphere Features with Veeam Availability Suite – Speakers(s) Anthony Spiteri, Michael Cade
Using vRealize with VMware Cloud on AWS – Speakers(s) Brian Graf, David Overbeek
Deploying vSAN with VMware Private Cloud – Speakers(s) Henry Bauer, Kristopher Groh
It was then back to the NetApp Booth but this time for a session with Mark Carlton, fellow A Team member where we touched on “VMware, NetApp & Veeam – A Healthy Data Fabric”
Managing Your Hybrid Cloud with VMware Cloud on AWS – Speakers(s) Frank Denneman, Emad Younis
Thursday
Travel Home day, but first I had to go and see my good buddy Pete Flecha present with Patrick Dirks on a Technical Deep Dive of Virtual Volumes. Back at the beginning of the year I was over in San Jose and I had the pleasure of meeting Mr VVol Patrick in person whilst we were looking over and preparing a joint whitepaper on Veeam and VVol with Pete, hopefully we can get that out by VMworld Europe.
Virtual Volumes Technical Deep Dive – Speakers(s) Patrick Dirks, Pete Flecha
Great week, really enjoyed catching up and meeting up with people from the community. Now to head home and get ready for Barcelona to do it all again.