Sessions opened this month for the NetApp Insight – Las Vegas – 2014 conference that i am extremely lucky to be attending, not only is this the second visit to the US it is also another place on the list of American places i want to visit and i get to do it because of my job which is super cool.

As well as Vegas i will also be attending the Insight event which is to be held in Berlin, Germany this year after following two years in Dublin, Ireland. I will follow up with another post around the sessions i will be taking there.

I went through the sessions catalog and i noted 55 sessions that would have been useful for me to attend and with the fact i was going to both insight events that gave me a strong chance in catching most of these sessions.

All in all i was able to book 17 sessions for Vegas, and 16 sessions for Berlin. Plus two exam slots. This meant that 22 sessions were not going to make the cut. Here is how the week looks for me over in Vegas, a pretty busy schedule for the 4 day event.

Monday

MS-2-1804-TT – Sizing Microsoft Applications Using SPM and E-Series Sizing Tools

Niyaz Mohamed

This session is aimed at covering the sizing steps and approaches that should be used for sizing Microsoft Exchange, SQL Servers and SharePoint using System Performance Modeler. Exchange, SQL and SharePoint sizing methodologies have been re-architected and this session will give Netapp field and partners the information on how to accurately size and use the input methodology correctly. The new SQL and SharePoint sizer workflow will be covered in detail. This session also covers the Excel sheet methodology for feeding the data to SPM. The E-Series sizer tool will cover how to size for a specific application based on the network latency and throughput requirements. The session will also include examples for each application and what options need to be selected in SPM to achieve the optimized output.

TR-2-1763-TT – An Introduction to Performance Sizing with System Performance Modeler (SPM)

Gregory Ferguson

Accurately sizing a configuration is a critical presales activity. Undersizing can lead to unhappy customers and performance escalations while oversizing can lead to uncompetitive bids. NetApp’s SPM tool, which has had some significant enhancements in the last year, enables SEs to perform an accurate performance sizing and derive an optimal NetApp configuration proposal. This session is for both the new SE as well as the SE who wants an update on how to best utilize the newest version of SPM.  The session will walk through SPM’s process flow and provide an understanding of how to most effectively use the tool.  We will identify and explain key input fields and how to gather the data needed for those fields.  We will also highlight the changes to the SPM UI since 1.4.x and include a preview of how the tool will continue to evolve to enable SEs to more easily produce accurate sizings for all types of opportunities.  The presentation will contain a number of screenshots and a list of additional resources to help with the practical application of the topics covered.

CL-3-2140-TT – How to Deploy NetApp Private Storage (TT)

Mark Beaupre

NetApp Private Storage (NPS) combines the elasticity and savings of industry leading public clouds with security, availability, and control of private storage. Using a database application as an example, NetApp Public Cloud Architect, Mark Beaupre, shows you how to optimize deployments of this NetApp Validated Architecture to meet the performance, capacity, security, and latency needs of your mission critical enterprise applications.

DP-2-2074-TT – SnapProtect: Design and Implementation Best Practices

Jay D’Angelo

Successful deployments are key to delivering the promised value of our products and solutions to our customers. In this session, we will discuss key considerations and best practices when designing and deploying NetApp SnapProtect – the most powerful enterprise backup and recovery product for protecting file systems and applications in virtualized and physical environments. Equip yourself with the knowledge you need before and during a SnapProtect Professional Services/Consulting Engagement to ensure a flawless deployment and seamless transition to successful customer operations.

Tuesday

VI-2-2202 – NetApp Best Practices for vSphere Part 2: Sizing and Performance

Andrew Sullivan

When it comes to VMware on NetApp storage, administrators and architects need a simple and reliable way to design, implement and manage their infrastructure. In this four-part series entitled NetApp Best Practices for vSphere, we cover the four most common areas of concern for all administrators; core Data ONTAP, sizing and performance, storage networking, and integrations. In this session, Part 2: Sizing and Performance, we explore aggregate and volume configuration best practices, VMware datastore best practices, and basic performance troubleshooting.

DP-3-1817 – NetApp SnapProtect: Advanced Data Protection for Enterprise Applications

Donnie Jordan & Glenn Miller

In today’s 24/7 global operations, rapid data growth and server virtualization can complicate backup and recovery strategies. NetApp SnapProtect management software modernizes backup and recovery, helping you eliminate complexity, accelerate processes, and increase responsiveness. Join us to learn how SnapProtect protects NAS shares and enterprise applications like Microsoft Exchange, SQL and Oracle in physical and virtual environments, enabling accelerated restores with shorter backup windows, lower costs and complexity. We’ll also highlight key new product capabilities such as Live Browse for virtual machine backups, deferred indexing, SnapMining, Single Mailbox Recovery and much more.

II-3-1960 – Architecting FlexPod with Microsoft Private Cloud (Hyper-V)

Glenn Sizemore

In this session learn how to design and deploy a Microsoft Private Cloud solution on FlexPod. Externally all FlexPods look alike, but there are subtle yet important details that differentiate a Hyper-V architecture from its VMware brethren. Attendees will walk away with a detailed knowledge of the potential pitfalls in a Hyper-V deployment, and the blueprint to a successful deployment.

CO-3-2144-TT – VSAN and ScaleIO: Competing Against Server-Side Storage and SDS

Mark Kulacz @markkulacz

VMware, EMC, and other IT startups are promoting both SDS and server-side storage technologies. What challenges are solved with the VMware-centric VSAN, or the scalable ScaleIO product (now part of the EMC ECS appliance)? How is SDS defined, in the context of these products? We will provide a deep dive review on what these products are, and are not. This session will provide the insight you need to ensure your customer ever higher levels of success and bolster your efficiency of competing and winning with the proven NetApp portfolio of products.

This session will also include a quick review of the new EMC ECS product, which is essentially a ScaleIO 1.30 product using EMC ViPR 2.0 to support object storage interfaces.

Wednesday

II-4-1966 – FlexPod Deep Dive

John George & Chris Obrien

NetApp and Cisco have partnered to develop the popular FlexPod architecture, a flexible, standardized and scalable infrastructure solution. During this technical deep dive presented by a lead architect, learn about the detailed design decisions and best practices implemented within the clustered Data ONTAP FlexPod architecture from both the Cisco and NetApp perspective. This session will also cover the various options and optional components of FlexPod and their benefits and impacts on the solution.

TR-3-1950-TT – Advanced Performance Sizing with System Performance Modeler (SPM)

Gregory Ferguson

SPM has changed significantly in the last year – there are new import options, export options and capabilities in several of the work flows. This session will explore these changes and some of the other lesser understood parts of SPM including the reverse sizer – what it is, when and how to use it. Other areas that will be covered include data importation, validation and guidelines for using imported data, and improvements in the model that allow for more accurate sizing. This session is designed for those who are generally familiar with SPM, but want to gain a deeper understanding of the recent changes and to be able to unlock more of SPM’s power. Included in the presentation will be a number of screenshots and a list of additional resources to help with the practical application of the topics covered.

MG-3-1990 – NetApp on NetApp: OnCommand Insight—Intelligent Analytics for Proactive Storage Operations

Stetson Webster & Chad Lew

Learn how NetApp IT has integrated OnCommand Insight (OCI) into our daily storage operations procedures in order to better support our global business applications and infrastructure. This session will give you an understanding of how NetApp IT is leveraging key performance indicators to proactively monitor and manage utilization and performance of storage clusters. Gain insight into our storage architecture and implementation details. Walk through specific examples and detailed scenarios for root-cause analysis and troubleshooting of storage problems. See how application teams are using OCI storage analytics and dashboards for capacity trending and forecasting of storage growth. Understand how OCI enables us to quickly make intelligent decisions and plan for storage workload rebalancing activities.

MG-3-2083 – Workflow Automation: Free Yourself from Those Mundane Tasks

Hendrik Land

OnCommand Workflow Automation (WFA) serves as an integration point for other automation and orchestration solutions. This enables you to quickly automate your NetApp storage systems with the readily available WFA building blocks and then execute the resulting workflow from a central orchestration tool or a custom portal. The WFA integration point is a Webservice API based on the REST standard. This session gives you an overview of REST in general and the WFA REST API in particular. It is not focused on a specific programming language or integration with a specific software, but provides the necessary knowledge to implement any required integration.

CR-3-3007 – Best Practices for Multiprotocol Access in Clustered Data ONTAP

Justin Parisi

As enterprise businesses grow and expand globally and into the cloud, unified access to storage from both Windows and Linux based operating systems is becoming more crucial to day-to-day operations. With these increasingly complex environments comes new challenges which require knowledge across multiple platforms and protocols, and a need to understand the best practices for multiprotocol access. This session will cover those best practices in clustered Data ONTAP and help simplify the daunting tasks faced by storage administrators as they see their user bases growing and diversifying. We will cover how to best address challenges with multiprotocol access in clustered Data ONTAP in a unified, secure, and efficient manner in ways that do not negatively impact users or client connectivity.

Thursday

VI-2-2240-TT – VMware Virtual Volumes: The New VMware Architecture for VM Granular Policy-Based Management and Software-Defined Storage

Peter Learmonth & Andrew Sullivan

VVols, PBM, SDS, VASA, VP, PE – what does it all mean, what do they do, and how do they fit together? Virtual Volumes (VVOLs) are VMware’s new architecture for VM granular policy-based management of storage. This session explains the basic concepts, along with the components, requirements, and tools for implementing VVols on NetApp clustered Data ONTAP.

CL-2-2246 – Deep Dive on Clustered Data ONTAP in the Cloud

Kevin Hill & Jeremy Goodrum

This session takes you through the ins and outs of clustered Data ONTAP in the Cloud for AWS. You will learn how clustered Data ONTAP in the Cloud runs as an EC2 virtual machine and manages EBS storage, how to deploy and provision with OnCommand managing the Cloud and considerations for performance. You will also learn about several key workloads and use cases targeted for cloud .

OP-2-1943 – Clustered Data ONTAP Transition—Planning and Preparation

Lyle Timmerman & Jess Van Ness

This session will address the overall workflow for conducting transitions – key considerations, best practices, tools, and more. Transitioning to clustered Data ONTAP starts with your first conversation about the operating system, as decisions made prior to deployment can have a big impact on future operations. As with any upgrade or new technology, it’s important to plan, implement, and operate the solution using a proven methodology. In this session you will learn how to leverage the tenants of the Unified Transition Methodology (UTM), early in the process, to maximize operational efficiencies. You will also hear from experts about real-life examples and how to increase your success with the transition process! We will review the importance of considering key concepts like Virtual Storage Machines (VSM’s), LIF’s, Namespace and third party products in your planning stages and how they relate to successful operations.

CR-2-2323-TT – Performance Sizing for Clustered Data ONTAP Transitions of 7-Mode Configurations with Existing Data

Gale Johnson & Blaine Agnew

Learn how to use the data you are already collecting on your 7-Mode systems to accurately size a clustered Data ONTAP replacement configuration that can accommodate your anticipated growth. Key Takeaways – Identify the metrics that are relevant, and which might be misleading – Understand how some of these metrics have changed over clustered Data ONTAP releases – Learn how to correlate the data in MyASUP to get the clearest picture – Sift quickly through the mountain of CM (Counter Manager) stats to highlight the most indicative – Understand how to determine when the existing data is sufficient, and when additional collection is required – Understand how this process differs from simply sizing 7-Mode upgrades

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