Category: VMworld

See you there! We’ll be Presenting: DRaaS and On-Premises Disaster Recovery Solutions at The 2023 US VMware Explore in the CXS Theater!

CaptainvOPs

It’s that time of year again, and I am very excited that VMware Explore has been moved back to sunny Las Vegas! To that end, I am also very excited to announce that I get to co-present a CSX Theater session CXS1280LV this year with Jack Levy.

VMware customers interested in leveraging new or existing cloud investments for Disaster Recovery and Ransomware Recovery, will most certainly be interested in attending our 45 minute presentation at the CSX Theater in the solutions exchange area.

A link to the CXS Theater session in the content catalog can be found here: DRaaS and On-Premises Disaster Recovery Solutions: Go from Zero to Hero

In today’s world, disaster recovery is not only about protecting the enterprise during a data center failure. The truth is there are bad actors out there also trying to extort money through ransomware. It’s time to get serious about disaster recovery, and VMware is here to help. Protect your business from human, climate and ransomware disasters. Learn from our experts about VMware’s various disaster recovery solutions from on-premises to our disaster recovery-as-a-service (DRaaS) offerings with ransomware recovery options in the cloud. Define the recovery strategy and protect your assets. In this session, we’ll be covering VMware Site Recovery Manager with vSphere replication, VMware Cloud Disaster Recovery plus the optional Ransomware recovery capabilities, and we’ll have a couple brief recorded demos of the setup process.

We will also be giving an exclusive presentation for our TAM and VMware Success 360 customers in a session that won’t be found in the content catalog TAM3792LV.

I’ll admit that I have always been excited to attend VMware Explore when I was a customer, back when it was called vmworld. My first time as a customer, was back in 2016 when vmworld was moved to Las Vegas. This year, the new Explore will be in Las Vegas for the first time, and it will be my first time presenting as a VMware employee. Does that mean I have come full circle?

Regardless, I am looking forward to the event, being able to meet with my customers I have worked with over the years as a consultant, and getting to meet some of my VMware colleagues that I have had the pleasure to work with over the years.

Jack Levy and I started around the same time on the same team Americas Professional Services Org, and became fast friends.

We are both excited about the opportunity to present at VMware Explore, and we look forward to seeing you at our session!

Key Takeaways from VMworld US 2019 in San Francisco.

CaptainvOPs

Looking back on this past week, all I can say is that it was pretty crazy. It was my first time to San Francisco, and I honestly left with mixed feelings on the City.

VMworld itself was pretty good! VMware cut back the general sessions to just two days (Monday and Tuesday), and I am honestly conflicted about the missing Thursday general session, as they usually showcase some non VMware related tech for this session.

If I could sum up VMworld in just one word this year, it would be: Kubernetes

Image result for kubernetes meme

VMware debuted their cloud management solution VMware Tanzu with partnership with Pivital, and showcased the ability to manage multiple Kubernetes clusters across multiple clouds, all from one central management dashboard, and Project Pacific, VMware’s endeavor to embed Kubernetes into vSphere.

VMware also added the Odyssey competition this year just outside of the Hands on Labs area. This was in the HOL style, however this only gave attendees hints on what needed to be completed, and really allowed you to test your knowledge and skills in order to complete the task, without the hand holding that the typical HOL provides. Teams were able to compete against each other for the best times, and had some pretty decent prizes.

All in all, it was a decent VMworld, and they will be returning to San Francisco next year. I can’t say that I enjoyed the location, especially with the homeless problem San Francisco has, and I would much rather see VMworld bring it’s 20k+ attendees to a cleaner city, without the drugs, pan handlers, and human waste on the streets. You’d think that as someone who grew up on a farm, and is used to certain sights and smells, that it wouldn’t have bothered me so much, but this took me by surprise

This was also a special VMworld for me this year, as I was finally able to meet Pat Gelsinger. I can tell he really likes the community, and would love to stay longer and chat with everyone. I certainly would have loved the chance to talk with him longer, but I know he had other obligations that night.

The vExpert party was fun as always, and we were able to get a nice photo of the group.

The last session I attended this year was “If this then that for vSphere – the power of event-driven automation” with keynote speakers William Lam, and Michael Gasch. Several well known VMware employees and bloggers were in attendance, including Alan Renouf, who was two chairs down from me, and for this first time I felt this crippling awkwardness of wanting to take pictures with all of them, but was so star stuck that I couldn’t bring myself to it. I know these guys are just normal folks who just happen to be stars in the vCommunity, but I had to contain myself, and enjoy the keynote. Hopefully our paths will cross again, and I can personally meet them.

VMworld General Session, Day 2, Tuesday August 27th, 2019: VMware Tanzu demos, and new CTO announcement!

CaptainvOPs

Day 3 of VMworld 2019 in San Francisco is underway, and it is the second day of General sessions. Clearly today’s theme is Kubernetes, and VMware’s Ray O’Farrell kicked off the keynote by talking about VMware Tanzu and Tanzu’s mission control.

The Keynote then included the integration of NSX-T with Tanzu. The ability to test changes, to see the impact on the environment before going live, was truly amazing

There was also an interesting demo with VMware Horizon and Workspace ONE, showcasing the usage deploying work spaces rapidly from the cloud, and creating zero-trust security policy withing workspace ONE with Carbon Black

Pat jumped up on stage to announce that Ray O’Ferrell (@ray_ofarrell) would be leading VMware’s cloud native apps division, and Greg Lavender (@GregL_VMware) was named the New CTO of VMware.

VMware also announced a limited edition t-shirt that would be given away later that day. VMware had roughly 1000 of these shirts made up, and luckily I was able to get a shirt before they ran out.

Plenty of people were upset about not getting a shirt due to the limited run. Gives a whole new meaning to nerd rage…. (sorry I couldn’t help myself).

VMworld General Session, Day 1, Monday August 26th, 2019: VMware Tanzu, and Project Pacific.

CaptainvOPs

The start of VMworld 2019 in San Francisco is underway, and Pat kicked off the general session talking about his excitement for being back in San Francisco, while poking fun at us “Vegas lovers”. Pat also talked about technology, our digital lives, and technologies role being a force for good. He talked about charities, and cancer research foundations.

Pat Then talked about The Law of Unintended Consequences, and how technology has advanced, we as a society have given up certain aspects of Privacy, the need to combat disinformation at scale available widely on the social media platforms.

Surprisingly, according to Pat, Bitcoin is Bad and contributes to the climate crisis.

First Major Announcement with Kubernetes, as VMware has been focussing on containers

Pat then announced the creation of VMware Tanzu, which is the initiative to have a common platform that allows developers to build modern apps, run enterprise Kubernetes, and platform to manage Kubernetes for developers and IT..

Second Major Announcement, Project Pacific. An ambitious project to unite vSphere and Kubernetes for the future of modern IT

Interestingly, Project Pacific was announced to be 30% faster than a traditional Linux VM, and 8% faster than solutions running on bare metal.

Project Pacific brings Kubernetes to the VMware Community, and will be offered by 20K+ Partner resellers, 4K+ Service providers and 1,100+ technology partners.

Tanzu also comes with mission control, a centralized tool allowing IT Operations to manage Kubernetes for developers and IT.