I attended VMware Partner Exchange this week in Las Vegas. I must say I was impressed. To be completely blunt; I wasn’t impressed with Vegas. Vegas is definitely not my cup of tea. I love a bit of “history” and Vegas hardly has any. Give me San Francisco, New York, Boston or any other city anytime!
I do however was impressed with Partner Exchange. From a logistics standpoint PEX was well organized so my compliments to the organization. The labs, the sessions, the workshops… I wish I could have joined any of these. I’m not complaining though as being part of the VCDX Panel is also a great experience. Seeing the creative solutions people come up with is a learning experience for me as well. Some people have a different view on a concept or solution and this also gives me food for thought. Another thing what I love about being part of the panel is making people think about their own design. I can’t say much about the interviews I conducted though as the NDA police would kill me. I hope to see some of you who are taking the defense in Munich!
I did manage to see the keynote by Steve Herrod by the way. I was impressed with all the insights Steve gave in terms of upcoming products, brand new projects and even a couple tech previews. I am looking forward to the upcoming version of VMware View and a new project which I can’t disclose as the VMware NDA Police would again kill me. I am also looking forward to start using Zimbra.
Especially “Zimlets” seem to be really powerful. Zimlets are basically hook-ins for your email/colaboration tool. A good example would be an Oracle plugin. When an email for instance contains a PO number the PO number will appear as a link to the PO system. But not only a link, when hovering over the link a pop-up will appear with for instance the total amount for the PO and the approval status.
Other upcoming new features that were revealed are IO DRS, Memory Compression and a new View management interface. I recommend reading some of the other blog posts on this topic as there is a lot I can’t write about:
- Gabe’s Virtual World – News from VMware Partner Exchange
- Brian Knudtson
- Scott Lowe – Session 1 – Session 2 – Session 3
- Steve Jin – PEX Day 1|party – Day 2 – Day 3 – Day 4
- Chad Sakac – VMware Partner Exchange 2010 from where I sat…
And by the way; Congrats Frank and Andrew Mitchell for becoming VCDX 029 and 030!
dconvery says
I heartily agree with your sentiments on Vegas. I am not a gambler and the glitz really isn’t my thing. I really enjoyed SF, even though I didn’t get a lot of site seeing time. Last year PEX was in Disney and even though I didn’t get to actually visit a park, the atmosphere is much better IMHO.
I have been reading everyone’s blog notes about this year’s PEX with sadness. Since I hurt my back, I couldn’t make it. I’ve been lying on my back awaiting surgery. The sadness is because I could not make such an awesome event. I had a very full schedule, with PTAB on Sunday and Monday and then a non-stop session schedule, filled with advanced topics, for the remainder of the week. Hopefully, they will be posted on Partner Exchange.
Welcome to VCDX #029 and #030! It is a proud moment when you recieve that call! Now, if only I could get a certificate and possibly one of those cool VCDX shirts…
Dave
Aaron Delp says
Hey Duncan! Just wanted to give you a heads up that I also posted a few non-NDA sessions up over at my site. I have notes on Lab Manager, SRM, and vCenter DB structures.
Thanks!
rbrambley says
Duncan,
Great seeing you in Vegas!
LV may not be your thing, but there is plenty of history. You should definitely check out Hoover Dam, the Grand Canyon, and even Area 51 next time your over. I know you really didn’t have time with the VCDX reviews.
If you are curious, more on Las Vegas history here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Las_Vegas
djlaube says
Hi Duncan, thanks for the writup. It was good to meet you (although very briefly before the VCDX session on Sunday).. I think a lot of people (myself included) would agree Vegas is pretty easy to have “enough” of. My tolerance is only about 3 days and then I’m done with the whole thing.. I am looking forward to Orlando next year. Take care!
JMfleury says
Congratulations to VCDX 29 and 30….
Does it means that for PEX VCDX sessions only 2 got passed ?
How many defend sessions are organized ?
BTW, congratulation for your blog 🙂
Jean-Marc