VMworld 2015

#VMworld2015 Day 2

dvdmorera VMworld 2015

Day2Day 2:

No Donald Trump on stage… just a rumor.

Some of the highlights for today’s General session:

AirWatch – Windows 10 is capable of being managed by AirWatch. This partnership will simplify mobility and ensure security on mobile devices.

Project A2 was introduced at VMworld. A2 stands for AirWatch and AppVolumes. Learn more here.

Maybe it was me, but the keynote was missing more content. They did announce the venue for VMworld 2016, which would be at the Mandalay Bay in Vegas, August 28 to September 1, 2016.

Sessions were really good…

 

VMworld2016

 

 

#VMworld2015 Day 1

dvdmorera VMworld 2015

Day1Finally here. The place were a lot of geeks get together.

This year at VMworld 2015, there are over 23,000 attendees and over 50,000 people watching from home,

Here are some of the highlights from the General Session”

Run, build, deliver, and secure That is what VMware is committing to provide customers through the delivery of a true hybrid cloud, where apps of any kind can co-exist.

Freedom, Flexibility, Choice – VMware’s commitment.

One Cloud – Private, public, managed. Unified Hybrid cloud. Think of this a as a single pane of glass to manage all of your clouds from one location.

VMware EVO SDDC Manager – Zero to SDDC in 2 hours. All resources are out together to form a virtual Rack.

Cross cloud vMotion was one of the main announcements. Being able to vMotion a VM that is powered on to vCloud Air without downtime. Pretty cool feature if you ask me. Obviously, you can always move the VM back to your private cloud.

Sessions we pretty good, and there were a lot of parties going on at night. Great way to meet fellow geeks and increase your network.

The VMUG group had a reception for all the VMUG Leaders, so it was nice to finally meet in person some of the other leaders.

Also attended the vBrisket party. Awesome groups of people to be around with.

Stay tuned for more…

 

#VMworld2015 Day 0

dvdmorera VMworld 2015 ,

Day0Day 0

For a lot of us, this was travel day. Sunday was a really busy day.

There were quite a few sessions for the attendees, as well as registration, TAM day, partner exchange, etc.

One of my favorite events on Sunday is the opening acts, brought to you by the good folks from vBrownBag and awesome sponsors. At night they hold the vUnderground party. This was a great opportunity to meet new people.

I landed in the afternoon, but I was able to make it to a VSAN session. It was a general, informative session, so not much technical content. I was surprised to hear that there are ~2,000 VSAN customers. To be honest, I thought there would be a whole lot more customers. It appears that the adoption rate is a bit slow, IMHO.

Stay tuned for more updates on #VMworld2015

 

How to survive #VMworld 2015

dvdmorera VMworld 2015 , ,

vmworld2015VMworld 2015, is just a few days away. Is that time of the year when all us geeks meet at one place to share and acquire knowledge, make new connections, and enjoy some local cuisine.

I have been to many VMworld conferences as well as other conferences, and always learn something new about how not to be tired by day 2.

It is easy to get excited about the conference, there is a good vibe about VMworld that makes you go all out and do it all in one day. There are a lot of sessions, many of them already full.

What to do if you didn’t get into the sessions you wanted? Well, IF there is a session that you feel you must go to, you can still go and line up outside and hope there is some room left for the people standing on the wait queue. If you are out of luck and did not get in, don’t sweat it, you will be able to have access to the recordings after VMworld.

I have found myself in this same situation, once or twice I took a certification exam just to “kill some time” and surprisingly finding out I passed. Exams are 1/2 price, so I figured, Why not? I have also visited many vendors that I never heard of, even the ones in the super tiny booth with no swag to give. I have been surprised by what some of the smaller vendors at the expo have to offer. Make sure you TALK to them, not just collect swag.

BurnedoutTry to spread out your time among sessions, vendors, networking, food, etc. as evenly as you can. Going to sessions all day long makes for a very boring and tiring day IMHO.  Don’t burn yourself out on the first day, VMworld is 4 days long, or 5 if you are there for the Sunday sessions. So try to stay fired up at least until Wednesday… see what I did there!?!?

 

 

As far as food goes, we all know that food any conference food is a carb loading feast. Be careful there not to overdue it, or every session will seem like a snooze fest.  You are what you eat, so try to eat somewhat healthy, at least during the day and save some room for the parties at night. Many vendors have started to offer breakfast meetings rather than parties at night, so that is something to consider.

VMW_Donuts

 

Parties. There are probably too many parties from vendors and groups, and most are at the same time on specific days. The VMworld party is on Wednesday night at AT&T park, so that leaves only Monday and Tuesday night for a bunch of vendors to do their marketing parties.

Here is a VMworld 2015 Events list that a fellow blogger put together.

img-att-park

 

Enjoy VMworld 2015!!!

 

If you see me, stop me and say Hi…

 

VMWORLD 2015 PREVIEW

dvdmorera VMworld 2015 , ,

VMworld2015It’s hard to believe it is conference season again. VMworld 2015 is only a month away (or less), and while VMware folks are gearing up to deliver the goods, you should also be getting ready in order to maximize your investment. Conferences are not just about the monetary investment, but also the personal time that we give up to travel across the country to acquire new knowledge.

This is my 6th or 7th VMworld this year (I lost count), so if VMworld 2015 will be your first one, you are in for a treat. I personally like the venue in San Francisco, not only is it familiar for returning attendees but also allows you to explore a great city. Did I mention they have really good breweries close by?!?!

In the United States, the venue will be the same, as I stated before, San Francisco Moscone Center. If you are registered, make sure you also register for the individual sessions. If you do not, you will have to wait outside and see if there is room available after the subscribed attendees have been seated.  Partner and TAM day are held on Sunday, so there is already a good amount of people at the conference center during that weekend. There is also a 5K fun run on Sunday Morning for charity. I participated last year and it was quite fun. More info here.

VMworld 5k Fun Run
VMworld 5k Fun Run

Last year vBrownBag hosted “Opening Acts” which were panel based discussions on many different topics. It is definitely worth your time. Follow vBrownBag on Twitter and visit Opening Acts 2015.

During the conference, there is a lot going on. Sessions from General sessions, deep dives, or just vendor based sessions are just some of many ways to acquire knowledge and professional connections. Make sure you network with other fellow geeks, you never know who you are going to meet, and often times it benefits you in different ways. Talk to the vendors. Yes, not just collect swag, but go talk to them. Many times I’ve been looking for a solution to a business requirements and my google search did not help, then I find out that one of the vendors has developed exactly what I’ve been looking for.

I hope to see many of you in San Francisco very soon…