In this special episode, we talk to Edward Green (Head of Commercial Technology, McLaren Racing) and Joe Baguley (CTO EMEA, VMware) about VMware’s partnership with McLaren Racing. Joe talks about his passion for motorsports, and how VMware got involved with McLaren. Edward dives deep into what IT means for McLaren Racing. What does their data center look like at the track? What kind of datasets are collected? Can the size of the dataset impact the race results? How does McLaren Racing provide fantastic experiences through its Paddock Club? All of that, and much more, is discussed by Edward Green in this episode of the Unexplored Territory Podcast! Listen via Spotify (https://spoti.fi/3Xx0orT), Apple (https://apple.co/3UdrJfC), or simply use the embedded player below!
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Unexplored Territory Podcast 31 – VMware Edge Compute Stack? Featuring Marilyn Basanta!
In episode 30 we spoke with Alan Renouf about the potential future of edge deployments, aka Project Keswick. We figured we also need to cover what is available today in the form of VMware Edge Compute Stack, so we invited Marilyn Basanta who is the Senior Director at VMware for Edge! Marilyn explains what the VMware Edge Compute Stack looks like, what customer use cases she encounters in the field, and how VMware Edge Compute Stack can help you run and deploy applications securely and efficiently in remote, and sometimes strange, locations. You can listen via Spotify – spoti.fi/3WWNIKu , Apple – apple.co/3hEFu9L, or use the embedded player below!
Running with power, using a Stryd footpod
A month ago or so I posted a thread on twitter that discusses my experience of using the Stryd footpod. I figured I would dump it in a blog post so that it doesn’t get lost. I’ve noticed various questions on twitter and facebook groups lately about the Stryd footpod and running with power. Questions that can easily be answered in my opinion, I will add some of those basic questions to the end of this blog.
So what is Stryd and what does it provide? Stryd is a hardware device, that contains many sensors, combined with an ML/analytics platform. The hardware device is a footpod, and it measures your output and running capabilities. That data is then analyzed and your specific training zones are calculated and race results can be estimated. These training zones can then be used to improve your endurance and pace using a single metric!
Stryd displays watts as their key metric, very similar to what a cyclist sees when using a power meter. The benefit of this is that you can use this “watt” metric to for instance pace a race, run intervals, or run a full workout at a particular effort. Of course, you could use pace ranges as well or heart rate, and people have been doing that for many years. However, heart rate typically takes time to ramp up, so during an interval the delay of the heart rate could mean you run in the wrong zone (too slow, or too fast). Pace ranges avoid that problem, but you’ll need to understand your capabilities extremely well to determine those ranges in combination with effort. This can be challenging for advanced runners, let alone beginning runners. [Read more…] about Running with power, using a Stryd footpod
VMware Converter is back!
William already reported on it a few days ago, and I just noticed it on VMTN that VMware vCenter Converter Standalone is back, or better said in beta! If you are a customer who already has access to the beta community, simply go to this link: vCenter Convert Beta Community to get access to the community and the download/releasenotes. If you don’t have access to the beta community, register for it via the following registration page: https://www.vmware.com/learn/1645300_REG.html, and download vCenter Converter!
<update>Available now: https://www.vmware.com/products/converter.html
I just went to the community and looked at the release notes and wanted to share some details with you:
- VMware vCenter Converter Standalone 6.3.0 (GA) | 11 October 2022
- You cannot upgrade to VMware vCenter Converter Standalone 6.3.0 from previous versions. If you have a previous version of Converter Standalone installed, uninstall it and then install Converter Standalone 6.3.0
- You can install Converter on:
- Windows Server 2012 (64-bit
- Windows 8.1 (32-bit and 64-bit)
- Windows Server 2012 R2 (64-bit)
- Windows 10 (32-bit and 64-bit)
- Windows Server 2016 (64-bit)
- Windows Server 2019 (64-bit)
- Windows 11 (64-bit)
- Windows Server 2022 (64-bit)
- VMware Converter Standalone can convert offline virtual machines from the following Hyper-V servers:
- Windows Server 2012 (64-bit)
- Windows Server 2012 R2 (64-bit)
- Windows 10 (64-bit)
- Windows Server 2016 (64-bit)
- Windows Server 2019 (64-bit)
- Windows 11 (64-bit)
- Windows Server 2022 (64-bit)
- VMware Converter Standalone can convert offline virtual machines from the following VMware products and versions:
- VMware vSphere 6.5 (Update 3)
- VMware vSphere 6.7 (Update 3)
- VMware vSphere 7.0 + Update 1 + Update 2 + Update 3
- VMware Workstation 16.x
- VMware Fusion 12.x
Of course I downloaded the build and installed it on my Windows host, and it is up and running. Time to convert some machines!
As mentioned by William, the focus was very much on getting a new version out which was fully supported and developed using the latest frameworks. Next, the focus will be on adding new functionality and support for other platforms. I can’t wait for the next version!
Five VMware Explore Recordings worth watching! (Deep Dive’s mainly)
I was going over the content I recommended before the event, and of course, there were a bunch of sessions I did not get to see live. I’ve been catching up on those sessions this week and I figured I would share my five favorite sessions with you that have deep technical content. There are loads of great sessions in the Explore Catalog, so I may have missed a few on this list, but these are the sessions that I felt were deep and useful! I recommend watching these.
- CEIB1576US – Project Monterey Behind the Scenes: A Technical Deep Dive
This session goes over what the vSphere Distributed Services Engine is, how it has been implemented, and what the benefits are. It also provides some insights on what to expect in the near future of this feature. - INDB2406USD – Deconstructing vSAN – A Deep Dive into the Internals of vSAN
This session goes over the vSAN internals and shows the data path, the emphasis here is mainly on the new Express Storage Architecture (ESA).- CEIB2172US – Get to Know the Next-Generation of vSAN Architecture
This session overlaps with the above, but it has some extra details shared by one of the lead engineers on vSAN ESA. So this isn’t session 3, but more 2b.
- CEIB2172US – Get to Know the Next-Generation of vSAN Architecture
- CEIB1236US – Vision for Data Protection and Ransomware Recovery as a Service
I attended this session live, and it basically previews an upcoming solution for recovery from a ransomware attack. I loved how it shows you where the attack potentially occurred, and I love that there is a next-gen anti-virus scanner integrated to scan the snapshots on restores so that you don’t go back to an infected “point in time”. - CEIB2325US – VMware Edge Compute Stack Reference Architecture Deep Dive
This session goes over the VMware Edge Compute Stack 2.0 which was mentioned in various keynotes at the event. - CEIB1432-3-4-USD – Tech Deep Dive into Azure VMware Solution / Google Cloud VMware Engine / Oracle Cloud VMware Solution
Yes, I am cheating again, but I can’t just list one when there are sessions on each of the offerings. I feel it is important to understand the details before you decide on which platform works for your multi-cloud implementation.