Yellow Bricks

by Duncan Epping

vmworld europe

My recommended sessions for VMworld Europe 2019!

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I created a list of recommended sessions for VMworld US, so I figured I would do the same for VMworld Europe. I am limiting it to 15 sessions for Europe and removed some of the sessions I had listed for the US and added some others for EMEA. I personally have 2 sessions scheduled at the moment, and they filled up rather fast in the US, so make sure to register early: HCI1870BE and HBI2186BE.

Okay, here’s my top 15 list, please note that this is pretty much in random order:

  • 60 Minutes of Non-Uniform Memory Architecture [HBI2278BE] by Frank Denneman
    This session got raving reviews in the US, I attended it personally and I can highly recommend it. That is if you think your brain can handle it… it is deep!
  • PowerCLI Deep Dive [HBI1729BE] by Luc Dekens and Kyle Ruddy
    What can I say? These guys speak PowerCLI. They know it inside out, just make sure you are ready to go deep!
  • VMware Cloud Foundation Deep Dive [HBI2044BE] by Jason Shaw
    I am a big fan of full-stack HCI solutions, and in this session, Jason talks about what VMware Cloud Foundation brings to the table.
  • HCI Management: Current and Future [HCI1207BE] by JunChi Zhang and Christian Dickmann
    Every year these guys bring some really cool demos and they expect you to provide feedback at the end of the session. So if you want to have a chance to influence vSAN/vSphere, attend this one!
  • Project Pacific Technical Overview: Unifying vSphere and Kubernetes [HBI4500BE] by Michael West and Jared Rosoff
    There was a lot of buzz surrounding the announcement of Project Pacific. I managed to sit in one or two sessions in the US, and knowing Jared was the lead engineering on this project I suspect that this session may even go deeper than the ones I attended in the US.
  • The Virtually Speaking Podcast Live: The Future of Storage [HCI1894PE] by Pete Flecha, John Nicholson, and guests
    I was a guest on the US in this session, it was a lot of fun. A lively discussion, and great questions from the audience on top of that. Plus, it is amazing to see Pete Flecha do the intro and outro live, I always thought that was pre-recorded!
  • The Cloud Backbone Network: A Paradigm Shift in Corporate WAN [OCTO1911BE] by Israel Cidon
    I have seen a session on this topic by Israel at an internal conference and it was nothing short of mind-blowing. I would highly recommend attending this if you want to learn more about how we could potentially improve corporate WANs in the future by leveraging SD-WAN technology. Mind, this session is foreward looking!
  • Showcase Keynote: HCI – The Foundation for your Future-proof Infrastructure [HCI3551KE] by Cormac Hogan and John Gilmartin
    I presented this session in the US with John, Cormac will be presenting it in Europe with John. I am sure it will be filled with great demos once again, and I will definitely try to attend this one in person
  • Leveraging the Latest Server Technologies in vSphere [HBI2362BE] by Niels Hagoort
    This session wasn’t on my list for the US, but after watching the recording I feel it is worth attending in person! A good overview of what we are doing with the latest HW technologist in vSphere.
  • vSphere Virtual Volumes: Technical Deep Dive [HBI2853BE] by Jason Massae and Thiruvengada Govinda Thirumal
    The adoption of vVols is growing fast, and it is for a good reason. Jason and Thiruvengada will explain in-depth what vVols is and how it works, and of course what the benefits are of adopting it.
  • Tech Preview of Site Recovery Manager with Virtual Volumes [HCI2894BE] by Stefan Tsonev and Velina Krasteva
    The tech preview of SRM for vVols has been discussed various times, but in this session by Stefan and Velina it is also demonstrated. So if you are interested in disaster recovery solutions in combination with vVols then this is one to attend!
  • Meet the [ML] Driver of the Self-Driving Datacenter [MLA1904BE] by Jad El-Zein and Arun Annavarapu
    At VMworld US Project Magna was unveiled, VMware’s effort to deliver the self-driving datacenter. A very interesting concept, which is explained in this session by Jad and Arun. I’ve seen some of the work, and it has a lot of potential, highly recommend attending this session!
  • Technical Deep Dive on Cloud Native Storage 1.0 [HCI2763BE] by Cormac Hogan and Myles Gray
    Cormac and Myles are the Cloud Native experts in our business unit, and I can guarantee that this will be a great session filled with cool demos.
  • Optimizing vSAN for Performance [HCI1757BE] by Paudie ORiordan
    If anyone can explain how to optimize vSAN, how to do benchmarking, and what to avoid… it is Paudie. On top of that, he is a great speaker and you can basically ask him anything on the topic of storage. Must see!
  • Innovations in vMotion: Features, Performance, and Best Practices [HBI1421BE] by Sreekanth Setty and Arunachalam Ramanathan
    I watched this session in the US, it provides an excellent overview of the enhancements introduced for vMotion to improve vMotion (and switch over) times. They also talk about some enhancements coming in the near future. Very interesting stuff.

Scheduling opens up tomorrow (24th of September), so make sure to hit the portal early. I guarantee that many of the sessions above will be full in a matter of days. So don’t say I did not warn you in advance!

See you at VMworld Europe

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VMworld Europe is coming up fast. I always get the question where people can find me. This is not an easy question as VMworld Europe usually means two things: sessions and meetings. Actually, it means three things: sessions, meetings and running between those. If you want to find me it is best to attend one of the three sessions I will be part of. Note that one session is full right now.

  • Innovating Beyond HCI: How VMware is Driving the Next Data Center Revolution [HCI3728KE] (seats available)
    Wednesday, Nov 07, 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
    In this session, I will be joining Yanbing Lee and John Gilmartin up on stage. This is the general session for the Storage and Availability BU as well as the Integrated Systems BU. In this session, we will discuss where, how, and why HCI and VMware Cloud Foundation started. But more importantly where we are today and where we will be going in the future. It will have great demos that reveal what we have planned in the upcoming year(s), so make sure to register for this one!
  • The Power of Storage Policy-Based Management [HCI1270BE] (seats available)
    Wednesday, Nov 07, 12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.
    The world of software-defined storage moves at a rapid pace, and VMware is one of the biggest enablers. In this session, Cormac and I will guide you through the world of software-defined storage initiatives at VMware and provide a primer to VMware vSAN, VMware Virtual Volumes (VVol), persistent cloud-native storage options (Project Hatchway), the VMware vSphere APIs for I/O filtering, and the binding factor in these cases: storage policy-based management. Be warned: We will bring demos!
  • vSphere Clustering Deep Dive, Part 1: vSphere HA and DRS [VIN1249BE]
    Tuesday, Nov 06, 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
    In this session, Frank and I will take you through the trenches of VMware vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS) and vSphere High Availability (HA). Find out about options to optimize your DRS settings for your specific requirements and goals, such as if you should be load balancing on active or consumed memory, as well as what has recently changed in the DRS algorithm and if it will impact DRS behavior. And for vSphere HA, you will learn about when it restarts virtual machines (VMs), what kind of restart times to expect, and where you can find evidence that a VM (or multiple) have been restarted. You will find out about all of these items and more. Prepare to dive deep, as the basics will not be covered.

    • Session is repeated on Thursday at 10:30!

Oh, and rumor has it that Frank, Niels and I may be handing out some signed copies of our book again at the Rubrik booth… More on that later. I am hoping we will see long queues through the solution exchange again.

VMworld Europe Session Builder is open!

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VMworld Session Builder is open, so if you are planning on going to VMworld Europe you may want to go to the session builder website and add the sessions you would like to see to your schedule. I created a list for VMworld US, most of these still apply. I also have two sessions of my own at VMworld Europe, you can add those by searching for “Epping”, or just click here and you will see them listed.

It also seems registrations are starting to ramp up fast now, if you haven’t registered I would urge you to do so today, typically sessions fill up quickly, and you don’t want to find yourself missing out on the sessions you wanted to see as a result of a late registration!

Oh, and we may have a couple of books to hand out in EMEA as well… Stay tuned for more on that later!

VMworld Europe, where can you find me?

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I have a couple of sessions schedule for VMworld Europe, as it stands right now all of those still have availability. If you are going to VMworld Europe and haven’t registered any sessions yet I would urge you to do so today, you don’t want to show up and find the session is full. I have one more session which isn’t listed below, which is the Quick Talk on VSAN Use Cases which is being rescheduled as we speak due to a conflict. I hope I can add that one soon to the list.