This morning I stopped by at the Labs and the Lab team was working full pace on getting the labs done. They were testing the labs and each and every station to guarantee a great experience. Last year I reported extensively on the Lab as I was one of the Lab Captains. This year I am not a Lap Captain as I have too many sessions scheduled but I do want to inform you about the labs as I feel it is one of the coolest things at VMworld.
First of all lets start with the hours, there’s 50 hrs of Labs this year:
- Sunday, Aug. 28th – 2:00pm – 8:00pm
- Monday, Aug. 29th – 7:00am – 3:00pm and 5:00pm – 8:00pm
- Tuesday, Aug. 30th – 10:00am – 10:00pm
- Wednesday, Aug. 31st – 7:00am – 7:00pm
- Thursday, Sept. 1st – 7:00am – 4:00pm
So if you are here on Sunday, get registered and get a couple of Labs done before everyone else will. For those who did the labs last year (of before) they made some changes. The labs are not around a specific feature or product anymore they are all scenario based. That means that it is more real life and less artificial and I am certain you will enjoy it.
Last year we had impressive numbers:
- 480 lab seat, 44 lab hours, 21,120 lab seat hours
- 15,344 labs completed
- 145,097 VMs deployed
This year we are aiming a lot higher:
- 480 lab seats, 50 lab hours, 24,000 lab seat hours
- Targets – 18,000 to 20,000 labs completed
- Targets – 225,000 to 250,000 VMs deployed
Just read that again…. 18,000 labs and 225,000 VMs deployed is the lower-end of the target. That is massive… H u g e!
Another huge difference is that last year we had “Hybrid” Cloud setup. Basically running in the cloud with resources available locally if needed. We never used it and based on that a new direction was taken. This is what we call a geographically distributed Public Cloud model. Terramark, Colt and Switch Supernap are providing the resources required for this environment. The cool thing though about Switch Supernap is that they are based out of Las Vegas and you can actually get a free tour of their datacenter this week. I’ve seen many cool datacenters but the Switch Supernap is probably the coolest I have seen. Check the following pictures for an impression, and if you are interested in the free tour email this adress: [email protected]. They will also provide transportation etc!
Make sure to stop by at the VMworld Labs and get a couple of the labs done. I guarantee you will enjoy it. It is not only a great way to discover products and features but it is just a great experience in general. Be there, and remember that just last like year there’s contest again … The person who does the most labs wins free VMworld 2012 ticket, last year someone completed all of them and then started doing the ones he liked the most again. If you want to win you will need to start tomorrow (Sunday) and just keep going, have fun and enjoy!