explore

This year I wasn’t planning on creating a list with my personal favorite sessions at Explore, it just takes so much time to go through the agenda, read the outlines and then pick what I feel would be interesting for me personally. However, this week I had a handful of people asking if I was going to post a list again as they typically share the list with their customers. So I figured that I would go through the exercise again. First, let me share the three sessions that I will be part of:

• Tech Deep Dive: vSAN 8 ESA–Performance and Resilience Without Compromise [CEIB1101LV]
  Pete Koehler and I will be diving deep into all things vSAN 8 ESA, and will make sure to bring some demos as well to this 45 minute break out session. This just may include some details of … well  I can’t talk about that really.
• Increasing Availability and Resilience with VMware vSAN Stretched Clusters [CEIB1099LV]
  Vivek Pamadi and I won the People’s Choice Award, and as such we get to present on the topic of vSAN Stretched Clusters at Explore, and in this session we will not only cover the current, but we will also reveal some potential future capabilities which will make your life as a stretched cluster customer easier!
• Career Advancement Panel Discussion: Tips for Success from Tech Leaders [VIB2845LV]
  I submitted a personal/career development session, but as the number of speaking slots is limited I was asked to join this panel session to talk about my experiences within the IT industry.

Those are the three sessions I will be part of, and hopefully, you will sign up for these. The vSAN sessions historically have been packed, usually repeated, so sign up early before they fill up!

Now, let’s list some of the sessions I am going to try to attend personally, that is if they are not full. Yes the list is focussed on areas I am interested in, and is not necessarily a representation of the broad diversity in terms of topics discussed at the event. But I am sure a few others will produce a similar list at some point.

• Technology Innovation Showcase [K2906LV]
  This was one of my favorite sessions in 2022, Kit Colbert and Chris Wolf will be talking futures/innovation and VMware. This means they will be sharing insights on what our R&D teams are currently working on and exploring. In my opinion, this is a must see!
• State of Alaska: Rapid Cloud Migration from the Last Frontier [CEIB2447LV]
  I do  not know this speaker, Niel Smith, but the first sentence of the abstract just caught my interest: “If you think you can’t use public cloud because of latency, old applications, storage performance, network constructs, firewall policies, and backups, think again.” And I love to hear good customer stories.
• State of Union for VMware Home Labs [CODEB2757LV]
  William Lam will be talking for 45 minutes extremely fast on the topic of Home Labs. You all know his name, you all know his blog, and you all know his passion for home labs. This will be good, and I would encourage all the lab geeks to join this one!
• Cloud Data Infrastructure: Strategy and Product Portfolio [VIB1643LV]
  My former manager, Christos Karamanolis, is hosting this session and talking about the Cloud Data Infrastructure strategy. Last year they introduced Project Moneta, will be interesting to see what we can expect in the upcoming year(s)
• Cyber Secure Storage and Data: VMware’s Next Storage Frontier? [CEIB2594LV]
  I am very intrigued by the title, cyber secure storage and data, hosted by Sazzala Reddy and Vijay Ramachandran. I’ve seen some previews of the content, I suspect that this will be one of my favorite sessions this year. I am very excited about what is going to be shared.
• Scaling and Deploying ESXi at the Edge with Desired State Management and GitOps [VIB2169LV]
  Last year Project Keswick was introduced by Alan Renouf (listen to the UT podcast on this topic), it seems that this session is the follow-up to that, how to deploy ESXi at the edge at scale. Alan Renouf will be hosting this session with Sadaat Malik and Elliott Davis
• Unleashing vSAN ESA – An Exploration of HCI and dHCI Deployment Options [CEIB1777LV]
  Kris and Kalyan are diving deep into the world of disaggregated HCI in this session, with a focus on how vSAN ESA has evolved this space for VMware, and will continue to evolve.
• NSX Security Mindset: The Architect’s Forum Part 1 and 2
  Chris McCain (and friends) is hosting a two-part workshop where they will be talking about securing your environment and how to respond to attacks. This is on top of mind for many organizations out there, and although these sessions are lengthy (90 minutes each), I highly encourage to attend these.
• Balancing Risk and Performance for Sustainable ICT Networks [CEIB2839LV]
  Sustainability is on the radar of most CIOs and CTOs these days, but what can YOU as an architect or administrator contribute? Frank and Valentin are going to be discussing exactly that!
• 45 Minutes of NUMA – A CPU Is Not a CPU Anymore [CODEB2761LV]
  This session has been a top-rated session for years, and for a good reason, Frank Denneman and Yu Wang will dive deep into CPU architectures and discuss how you can get the most out of your infrastructure by understanding the CPU architecture and NUMA topology!