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VMworld US 2014 – Keynote Announcements

Summary of announcements from the Keynote session:

Third year of implementing the SDDC strategy
NSX is gaining industry recognition and adoption
vCloud Suite is rebranded as “vRealize” to incorporate vCHS, vSAN, vVols & vSphere
VMware’s foray into the Hyper-Converged market: EVO suite (aka “Marvin” & “VMCI”) with Rail (medium enterprise) and Rack (large enterprise)
VMware will contribute code to the Open Stack project to support OpenStack APIs
“Containers without compromise” – VMware working with Docker and Google on “container” technologies
vCloud Governance service for vCloud Air (aka vCHS) customers with a heavy US Government compliance requirement (available September 2014)

The clock is ticking, register for VMworld EU 2014, plan your travel and reserve your sessions:

VMworld US 2014 – 10th Annual TAM Day

I attended TAM day yesterday which was a great event. The keynote was fantastic with VMware President and COO, Carl Eschenbach, and the highlight of the day was the “Ask an Expert” lunch, where 100+ experts from all silos of VMware were available for discussions over lunch.

This is my second TAM day and I must say it just gets better and better every year with 1000+ TAM customers attending the event. So if you are a serious VMware customer and you want to maximise and leverage your VMware investment, then consider joining the TAM program.

The clock is ticking, register for VMworld EU 2014, plan your travel and reserve your sessions:

VMworld 2014 – LaaS (Labs-as-a-Service)

On the latest VMware Communities Roundtable Podcast (iTunes) podcast (Episode #290), Dave Rollins announced updates to the Hands-On-Lab program:

2013 HOL Catalog – Still available on the Internet.
2014 HOL Catalog – Third round of Beta testing has been completed in readiness for VMworld 2014.
“Labs-in-a-Box” – The name is a misnomer, it is NOT a set of HOL binaries for you to setup your own HOL environment. It is the connection service for volunteer HOL experts in your area to provide “Intstructor Led” services for your HOL event (eg. VMUG); also included is the planning and documentation for co-ordinating the pre-staging of the LaaS services within the HOL backend. It also includes recommendations for the EUC infrastructure and the Internet bandwidth required for a large group of people, ensuring that your HOL event will be a success.
“Lightning Labs” – 15 to 30 minute labs that give you the “fast-track” on that particular product. This means you do not have to complete the entire 60-90 minute lab.
“Instructor Led Labs” – Two rooms (increased from 12 to 20 people each) during VMworld will have Instructor Led HOL. They are fully booked out, but a lot of people do not show up. So turn up 10 minutes before the session begins and you may be able to take the place of a “no-show”.
“Partner Labs” – The number of partner labs has increased this year: IBM, Puppet, Infoblox, Cisco, NetApp, CatBird, Liquidware Labs, etc.
“Self-paced Labs” – Same as last year, EUC endpoints where you can complete a Lab at your own pace.
“Hot Spots” – Same as last year, dedicated areas for “Bring Your Own Device” to access HOL.
“HOL” tours – Same as last year, there will be organised tours of the HOL environment by the HOL team.

The expectation is that on the second and third days, the queues for HOL will thin out, so if you have some free time, sign up! See you at VMworld.

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VMworld 2014 – VCDX Academy, Game On!

UPDATE: Official name is “VCDX Fast Track”. Today John Arrasjid officially announced the “VCDX Academy” (aka “AcademyX”) in a series of tweets:

First VCDX Academy “Beta” will be held in Palo Alto on the 15th of September 2014.
First VCDX Academy “Beta” will host 40 students.
Course will be available from MyLearn next week.
It is a paid 5 day class, led by VCDXs and specialists for each track (DCV, Cloud, Desktop & NV).
Includes Discovery Phase Questions, Design Decision Workbook, Design Review Readiness Assessment, Mock Defences and Design/Troubleshooting scenarios.
Built upon material used within the VCDX Mentoring Program, Boot Camps, PEX Sessions and his new book.
Depending upon success, VMware Education expects to offer this course quarterly in multiple regions.
Prerequisite for students: MUST have a design.

So if you are a VCDX Candidate who wants to maximise their chances of success, sign up! I also recently blogged about other VCDX Program announcements.

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VMworld 2014 – vBrownbag TechTalks

The vBrownbag TechTalk schedule has just been posted online for VMworld US 2014. These will be held in the “Hang Space” on the “Community Stage”, which is to your left as you walk through the doors. It looks like there will be a lot of interesting things going on during the event:

vExpert Daily & HP Sessions
vBrownbag TechTalks – featuring Rene Van Den Bedem, Julian Wood, Vaughn Stewart, Andrew Nelson, Eric Wright, Shannon Snowden, Brian Trainor, Matt Brender, Anthony Spiteri, Byron Schaller, Fabio Rapposelli, Edward Haletky, Sean Crookston, Sean Massey, Brian Graf, Tim Gleed, David Espejo, James Green, Steve Flanders, Craig Waters, Keith Norbie, Tony Foster, David Klee and Chris Sears
vBrownbag Sponsor sessions – VMTurbo, Peter Smith – Infinio and Andy Warfield – Coho Data
Geek Whisperers podcast
Speaking in Tech podcast
Latin America vExpert and VMUG sessions

So if you happen to be in the Hang Space relaxing, keep an eye out for the various events being held on the Community Stage. See you at VMworld!

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VMware Education – VCDX-NV, but no VCAPs

In a previous post I have talked about the expected VCDX program announcements at VMworld 2014. There is now a very strong rumour that the first VCDX-NV candidates will be defending their designs next week. The first batch of newly minted VCDX-NVs will likely be celebrated at the VMworld US – VCDX/vExpert party. This was intimated by the “VCDX-NV” option present in the VCDX/vExpert party registration.

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VMworld 2014 – Pace yourself!

This will be my second VMworld and I want to pass on some tips that I learned from the “10 year” VMworld veterans that maximised my experience last year:

Keep hydrated with H20, carry a water bottle.
Maintain your energy levels by eating good, healthy food, regularly.
Minimise your alcohol intake.
Wear comfortable shoes that have been “broken in”. Ladies: high heels = bad idea.
Dress in neat casual or professional clothing – just make sure it is comfortable.
Travel light – if you do not need your laptop, leave it at the hotel.
Plan ahead and organise your schedule so that you are getting 8 hours of sleep a night.
It is physically impossible to attend every event, so attend what is important to you.

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