Yellow Bricks

VMworld 2020 is coming, which means I get to create a list of sessions again which I feel are worth attending. My focus will primarily be on sessions that are hosted by folks of the VMware Cloud Platform Business Unit, which means that the list will be dominated by sessions on the topic of vSAN, vSphere, VCF etc. The key reason for it being of course is that I know most of the speakers on those sessions, and I have attended many of those sessions in the past, so I know what to expect.

I have two sessions accepted this year. The two sessions are:

• vSAN 7.0: A Platform for both Virtual Machine and Containerized Workloads [HCI1814] – Duncan Epping & Cormac Hogan
• Change Begins at the End of Your Comfort Zone: My Take 3 Journey [ETPD1043] – Duncan Epping

Make sure to attend these sessions, and if you have any questions, feel free to drop me a note on twitter! When it comes to my top 15 sessions, please note that these are in random order, and also note that if your (or a) session is not listed it doesn’t mean I feel your session isn’t going to be great, it simply means I had too many great sessions to pick from and I somehow had to limit the list. Here we go:

1. Fast Forward to Future-Ready Infrastructure [HCI3074] by John Gilmartin
   In this BU showcase, John Gilmartin will be discussing where HCI stands today, but more importantly, which direction we are heading towards!
2. 60 Minutes of NUMA [HCP2453] by Frank Denneman
   Do you want to know everything you ever need to know about NUMA when it comes to vSphere? Make sure to watch this session, it was an instant classic last year, and I am sure it will be again this year!
3. Storage and Availability Vision [HCP3073] by Vijay Ramachandran and Jayanta Dey
   This is the session where futures are discussed! Vijay and Jayanta will be sharing with you which concepts and functionality VMware is exploring for future releases of our HCI products. Definitely worth attending if you want to get a hint of our roadmap.
4. The Datacenter of the Future [HCP3004] by Kit Colbert and Pere Monclus

   In this session Kit and Pere are going to discuss the future of the Datacenter. Both Kit and Pere are a CTO for the business unit they work for, so you can expect this session to be forward-looking and discuss the trends VMware is seeing and technologies they expect to become mainstream in the upcoming years.
5. Datrium-based DRaaS Deep Dive: The What, Why, How of the new VMware DRaaS [HCI2886] by Nabil Quadri and Sazzala Reddy
   As most of you know, VMware recently acquired Datrium. In this session, Nabil and Sazzala are going to dive deep into what their DR as a Service solution brings, how it works, and why you should be watching this space closely!
6. Extreme Performance Series: vSphere Compute and Memory Schedulers [HCP2583] by Xunjia Lu and Qasim Ali
   I always try to watch 2 or 3 sessions in the Extreme Performance Series, these sessions are always very educational. I have learned something new every single time I’ve attended, or watched, one of these. Do note, this is a deep (as in DEEP) dive typically.
7. vSAN Technical Deep Dive [HCI1069] by Rakesh Radhakrishnan and Matt Amdur
   Technical deep dives host by engineering and product management are always worth attending in my eyes, and both Rakesh and Matt will for sure deliver what you would expect a deep dive to be.
8. vSphere Virtual Volumes (vVols): Modernize Your External Storage [HCI1692] by Cody Hosterman and Jason Massae
   If I had to pick two people to tell me all about vVols it would probably be Cody and Jason, these guys understand core storage and vVols inside out, and on top of that understand very well how, and why, customers are implementing it!
9. The Future of Networking with VMware NSX [VCNC1555] by Bruce Davie and Marcos Hernandez
   A lot has changed in the world of networking the past decade or so, and with IoT and 5G around the corner, it is important to understand how VMware can help you moving into this new era.
10. vCenter Server 7 Deconstructed [HCP2328] by Emad Younis and Niels Hagoort
    In this session Emad and Niels will be discussing the internals of vCenter Server. How did VMware integrate the Kubernetes effort? How does Lifecycle Manager help you manage your cluster?
11. HCI Management: Current and Future [HCI1514] by Junchi Zhang
    In this session Junchi will be discussing the future of HCI management. In the last couple of years, this session has always been packed with demos of future functionality, and it has been my favorite the past couple of years for sure!
12. What’s New in Site Recovery Manager and vSphere Replication [HCI1452] by Cato Grace and Velina Krasteva
    A lot has changed for Site Recovery Manager in the past year, definitely worth getting a better understanding by watching this session!
13. Deep Dive: Storage for VMware Cloud Foundation [HCI2362] by Kevin Tebear and Ron Scott-Adams
    The question of which storage platform to use with VCF comes up frequently, and in this session Kevin and Ron are going to discuss all the supported protocols and architectures, and they will be providing guidance and best practices around what to use and when/where.
14. Innovations in vSphere 7 vMotion: Architecture and Performance [HCP1508] by Sreekanth Setty and Yanlei Zhao
    I watched this session last year, and it was very interesting, a lot of in-depth info around the changes introduced and the changes that will be introduced in the future, to further improve the vMotion process!
15. Inside xLabs and Off-Roadmap Innovation in the VMware Office of the CTO [OCTO2406] by Daniel Beveridge and Chris Wolf
    In the past couple of years Daniel and Chris have been hosting some very interesting sessions, some very fascinating ideas, concepts, and trends were shared, along with potential solutions for these.