Tag vmworld

Oh, well hey there! OMG ITS VMWORLD! Hey guys! I bet you’re wondering WTF I’m talking about! It’s okay. Some of you were expecting this, or are saying, “Finally… I mean, Cisco has validated Designs, and they’ve been doing those technical design guides for DECADES…” But I digress… I mean because VMware hasn’t been half shabby with their NUMEROUS whitepapers on every single topic under the sun for application supportability, capability, design, you name it!

OMG SO WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?!

Alright, alright calm down…

The VMware Validated Designs now provide a Blue print for the whole data center instead of merely being an infinite series of reference architecture, Best Practices, and Guides based upon products in a bubble! 

How does this differ from a validated architecture like VSPEX?

How this differs from a validated architecture is that an architecture will often be presented as ‘IM A VENDOR BUY MY STUFF’ whereas a design basically sets the table that, “Here’s a design… buy whoseever stuff or whatever things you want! (obviously ensure its on the HCL :))”   I hear this come up a lot with friends, partners, colleagues, customers and the best initial comparison I can think of comes to having a house built, a design truly becomes the blueprint for your home.  You pay an architect to produce that and you can then take that deliverable anywhere and have it be built, whereas in the technical sense an validated architecture is like track housing.  You can have it look and feel any way you want, as long as its one of these THREE options.   So you can pick and choose which framework or model works best for you, they’re not mutually exclusive and you can layer the capabilities of one atop the other.   Also consider, HEY you can use this to apply the principles to your existing implementation to see what you might do to improve it!

OMG ARE YOU SAYING ITS WIN WIN?! Yes. I am. But I won’t use those words. You chose to use them. :)

Today there are a few VMware Validated Designs which have been released (with more to come)

• The VMware® Software-Defined Data Center Foundation
• Automated Provisioning with the VMware® Software-Defined Data Center – Single Region

And as an added bonus, VMware has ALSO just announced “Feature Walkthroughs”

What’s cool about the Walkthroughs is that it breaks down various business and technical elements of the VMware portfolio AND has direct links to take you to the hands on labs, so a little for the business and a little for the technical!  It’s a nice bit of fun all packaged up together! :)

For deeper insight into VMware Validated Designs, check out Felicia Jadczak’s post on the CTO Forum,  Introducing VMware Validated Designs

Enjoy! This is just a SMALL portion of things to be announced this week at #VMworld! <3

Wow, scream much mr mc screamy?

Hey what can I say, I’m excited… For you, the potential win ners of this contest! And Yes, yes I did apply to this contest too, but hey I’m not some evil bastard who is going to hoard something just so I minimize my odds, you should share it too!   So what’s the deal?

Well, you know how every year various companies which are integral to virtualization tend to give away free passes to VMworld?  This year, we kick it off with VMTurbo providing not one, not two, but THREE possibilities to win, not one, but TWO passes! Wow that’s a lot of math!

OMG WHEN ARE THE DRAWINGS?!

The drawings are MAY 29th, JUNE 19th, and JULY 10TH!!!

This is only for VMworld San Francisco, and of course go read the rules, but click the picture above, the drawings, THIS LINK, there’s a lot of places to ensure that you are ENTERED!

Let me start off by saying, WOW. I mean Mega-WOW.  If you haven’t watched the Keynote from 26AUG2014 yet you definitely ought to.   This VMworld and this keynote focused on what has been taken for granted within the community and the virtualization space for years from a corporate perspective.   This VMworld has focused all eyes and attention on the COMMUNITY.   When the executives of VMware get up and say that the community matters, that the VMware Users Group organization is not only visible but also important to the mission and the success of their business; They are finally getting it! Today as it stands the VMUG organization has over 100,000 members. If you’re not one of those members, you should be. And if you are one of those members, continue to get involved, grow, rock! 

But there have been so many other points which were hit on, discussed, leveraged.  Down below is a breakdown of the items which they mentioned and respectively discussed, including where you can sign up for the Beta programs for some items.   This is only a small portion of the products which will be unveiled, updated, released, so on and so forth!  (There will be more references in the coming days)

This as a whole breaks down just a small section of what was discussed at the Keynote (General Session), What products were mentioned, and some little ones you ought to know about which were not directly mentioned THERE but instead were referenced elsewhere and are now able to be talked about.

• Policy as a Service (Congress – Being worked on by Tim Hinrichs and Peter Balland, Scott Lowe pointed them out to me at the CTO Booth.
• Mentioned briefly in the KeyNote but the further integrations and validation of the Government Cloud First Program – FedRAMP (Which is huge)
• A serious commitment to the Open Computing Project (OCP) joining as a Gold Member

There is much more which will come from this, not only announced today but the outliers and little enhancements (Which I’ll discuss in the next few blogs)

A look at some of the products featured today 26 AUG 2014!

Hybrid Cloud

• vCloud Air Virtual Private Cloud OnDemand (Private Beta) sign up
• VMware vCloud Air Object Storage (Qualified Beta) sign up

Software-Define Your Data Center

• VMware Integrated OpenStack
• VMware NSX™ 6.1
• VMware vCloud Suite 5.8

SDDC Management

• VMware vRealize™ Suite
• VMware vRealize™ Air™ Automation (Beta) sign up

Rapidly Scale Your Infrastructure

• VMware EVO: Rail
• EVO:RAIL announced partners: Dell, EMC, Fujitsu, Inspur, Net One Systems and SuperMicro. More to follow!

Mobile!

• VMware Workspace Suite

The point is, this is just a taste of more to come.  Look forward to Video interviews with Engineers, Architects, Founders and more on some of the game changers in the industry, as well as highlighting particularly cool technologies, and doing my best to avoid the companies with crappy products. <3

Here we are with only 19 days until I leave to get there, leaving you approximately three weeks to get ready! Let’s make sure you’re ready! I’m sure by now you’ve already read in-depth The OMG ridiculous single point of awesome for attending VMworld 2014 San Francisco!!! and all of the citing references in past posts, right?! So let’s focus on what is most important at this point!

Are you REGISTERED for VMworld?!?

This has been covered at length, and some more length in my previous posts on the subject, but have you visited the VMworld Registration page and signed up / paid and all that jazz?! If not, your time is certainly coming close! :) There is STILL time to win a free pass from @vDestination’s “Win a free trip to VMworld” contest! (Today is the LAST day!)

Do you have somewhere to sleep?!

At this point the hotel situation is likely a bit ridiculous… I just checked what properties are available on AirBNB and there are still a fair number of good options which are affordable available, so you may want to consider that!

Have you informed your favorite vendors that you’ll be at VMworld?!

We all know that VMworld is about two things on the whole. The community and more specifically the individuals who make up the community.  While contrary to that, the Partners and Vendors tend to think that VMworld is actually about them. It isn’t. It is about YOU. NOT THEM. But with that being the case your partners and vendors likely WILL be there.  They often want to pitch you on some new thing, or show you something else, or just continue growing their network with them. Let them. Get to know them better, in an outside the office context. They will often host or sponsor parties, so a few key points to make sure you address when it comes to them…

• Contact your Sales Reps / Sales Engineers / Technical Consultant, etc… And make sure they know that YOU will be attending VMworld!
• Contact these partners and vendors especially if there is some technology or business case you’re looking to learn more about at the show
• Find out if they have any parties they’re throwing or sponsoring and be all like, “Where’s my invite?!”
• :)

Are you signed up or planning to attend various important events?!

You are the most important part of the VMworld conference and there are special events that you ought to attend!

• Dodgeball Charity Tournament #v0dgeball – Get your Virtualization spirit on and attend #v0dgeball!
• Software Defined Warm-Up Party as a Service through the virtual powers of the VMunderground! They throw an awesome party each year!
• #vRelax a regular event I do every year whereby we get foot reflexology in Chinatown. It’s awesome, it’ll change your life and your feet will thank you!
• VMworld 2014 Gatherings, Tweetups, Parties and Activities – Your source for *everything* going on after hours!

There are obviously so many other things you need to focus and spend your attention on, but just to hit the key points from this and past posts…

1. Book your attendance / Pass
2. Book your hotel or place to stay
3. Inform your vendors and partners
4. Make sure you are bringing comfortable shoes!!!
5. Sign up for / Register for events that apply to you

If you have each of these points covered, ready the other blog posts and guides, you will be ready to go! Good luck, love you all and see you in San Francisco!

Well hello there fellow VMworldians!  It’s about that time again! For those veterans of #vRelax it will be happening again.  For those who aren’t familiar, here is the low down. :)

VMworld and well the World in general are hardcore busy places where we are on our feet all of the time and taking a regular beating.   This is where #vRelax comes into focus!   I discovered this little Foot Reflexology place in San Francisco Chinatown a little over 10 years ago, and I’ve been going ever since.  In fact for the past 4-5 VMworlds we’ve been attending religiously!

Why should I do it? I don’t like others to touch my feet, more stupid excuses!

Yea that’s what I would hear from people, from fears of people touching their feet, or ‘I don’t see the point of it’ or you name it.  This place is hardcore. It will have you leaving there with your feet feeling refreshed and awesome. Oh and it likely will HURT when they rub your feet, why? Because if your feet are all jacked up, there’s gotta be some repair to do it.  You will LEAVE feeling great, but during the time, you may cry. I’ve seen 6’6” big burly men cry. ;)

Where is it?

So, this place (as there are many, but this place is the BEST) is the Foot Reflexology Center

662 Jackson St
San Francisco, CA 94133 (Between Beckett St & Wentworth Pl in Chinatown)

Oh and for those wondering the price is relatively affordable.

When will others be going?!

It will really vary and be kind of random at times, keep an eye on the #vRelax hash tag throughout the week of VMworld (And some days leading up to VMworld :))  You’ll find some of your favorite Virtual denizens from bloggers, authors, podcasters and the like who will take a trip to Chinatown for this!

So keep an eye on my twitter feed, or if you happen to run into a group of us on the show floor or wherever we may do an impromptu, “Let’s go to Chinatown!” It happens. We’re very welcoming of others. This is about you and your feeling better. <3