Even though we have the middle of summer (at least in Europe) many Administrators, Developers
and the enthusiasts are already looking for autumn. The whole IT world is waiting impatiently for this year’s event, which is called VMworld. The largest annual IT conference organized by VMware will take place remotely around the world from 5 to 7 October.
This year, the conference’s motto is “Imagine that”, which allows you to expect new solutions unimaginable for an ordinary gray participant.
It will be the third conference for me. Once I was in Barcelona Once Online and although I am happy with the global availability, I miss the atmosphere that was in the halls
in Barcelona and allowed for better integration between participants. Due to the fact that this is the third conference, I could also pick up the VMworld Alumni pin, but it may be difficult remotely 🙂
This year, VMware made available to the audience a catalog with over 600 sessions divided into 8 tracks, access to experts and I suppose that the closer to the conference, the more interesting things will be shared.
But let’s get to the point I wanted to write about here. As I am an avid fan of VMware and also one of the evangelists, I would like to write a few words about the sessions that personally interested me and which I added to my favorites.
After the first review of the entire catalog, so far I have listed 111 sessions and I did not plan to achieve such an equal number, but I suppose that when I go deeper into the abyss, there will be more of them. But to make it easier for you to see my interests, I will divide each description into paths.
I chose 7 sessions from the “Vision & Innovation” path.
The first one that immediately interested me is called “A Technical Review of PSC, VMDIR, Replications and Snapshots [VI2447]”, its nomenclature level is Technical 200. The session interested me because my current work is related to vSphere, so I’m happy that I will be able to participate in the PSC deep dive session. An additional advantage is that the session will be conducted by Laraib Kazi who is a Senior Technical Support Engineer, i.e. a person who knows his job and does it well.
When it comes to vSphere, there is one more session that is worth mentioning here, namely “Deep Dive: VM Performance and Best Practices [VI2158]” here, from my point of view, it promises to be even more interesting because as a technical person I really like sessions conducted by technicians and Jimmy Arias as a Staff Technical Support Engineer and he is one of them, and his session has the Technical 300 level, so if someone like me wants to utilize resources in vSphere environments in the best way, he should wait for this session.
The last session that I find recommendable is actually a meeting with an expert and the title of this session is “Meet the Expert: Enterprise Kubernetes on vSphere with Rafael Brito [VI2623]”. I don’t know about you, but I think that meetings with experts in a given field allow us to do our job much better and even though we sometimes have no questions, it’s always worth listening to.
A novelty for me is the “Inspire Change” track, surprisingly, there are as many as 9 sessions here.
Most of the sessions I chose here are about branding and career and in my opinion worth going and listening to the sessions “Achieving Happiness: The Quest for Something New [IC1484]” and “Start from Square 001: A Conversation on Virtual Career Development [IC1938]”. Here, too, we have a session discussing or, to some extent, preparing for the VCP exams. One of such sessions will be led by Shaun-Leigh Mackolisky, more precisely, “Exam Guide Review: VCP-DCV [IC2725]”. Here, maybe due to my personal acquaintance with Shaun-Leigh, I chose this session, but I also think that it is worth listening about the exams branded by VMware and what we can achieve thanks to them.
The next path is “End User Service” here I chose only 3 sessions but as you know I am interested in cloud and you will see how many sessions I have in Multi-Cloud. But to the point. The most important session for me here is “Automating the Deployment and Configuration of vRealize Suite and More [EUS1495]”. A very technical session with a Technical 300 level of the Meet the Expert type promises a lot of good. In addition, the session is about the technology with which I identify and when I have the opportunity to learn even more from Chris Roberson, you understand that you cannot miss it.
The “Networking” path where I chose 4 sessions, but one of them made me very curious and I think I will not let it go. Its title and number is “An Easy Way of Monitoring and Troubleshooting Multi-Cloud Applications [NET2356]”. This is another session in the Meet the Expert series with a Technical level of 300. I hope that from the session led by Nathan McMahon and Ashutosh Gupta I will learn how to properly monitor environments in Multi-Cloud, which will allow me to provide my clients with even better solutions.
The next track is “Security” and here I have 10 sessions, but this is due to my infatuation with various aspects related to security and the former hacker subculture. This path also includes an instance from the “Edge” path so I omitted it specifically from the listing because it is not my tailstock. In the Security path, I think I will go to the session titled “America’s Insurgency: The Cyber Escalation [SEC2670]”. The session will be led by Tom Kellermann, who is the Head of Cybersecurity Strategy at VMware, which certainly gives us high expectations. Another session that I chose here is “Continuous Compliance and Vulnerability Management with vRealize Automation [SEC2054]” here we will have information about SaltStack regarding compliance and we will get a large dose of a demo instead of dry slides and the Technical 300 level and the host Karl Fultz and Alex Peay will guarantee a good dose knowledge.
Now the two paths where I chose the most sessions. First, “App Modernization” and here 27 sessions. I chose these sessions because of their content, but also because of my innate curiosity. First, the session “A guide to vSphere with VMware Tanzu: Day 2 Operations for the VI Admin [APP1718]”. A session led by Simon Conyard and Dean Lewis as a Technical 300 level will provide me with the knowledge how, as a regular administrator, I can achieve more and better manage a modern infrastructure using VMware Tanzu. Another session that interested me in its title was “An End-to-End Demo of Day 0 to Day 2 VMware Tanzu Management with vRealize [APP1586]”. The overview by the entire vRealize family in conjunction with Kubernetes and the Technical 300 level encourage you to see this session not only once. To my first session mentioned in this path, it is worth adding another one called “Introduction to Kubernetes for the vSphere Admin [APP2183]”. It is true that we have only Technical 100 level here, but I think that sessions from scratch allow you to systematize your knowledge and gain good foundations for the next levels . A session worth going by just the name of the lecturer which is Eric Shanks here, “VMware Cloud with Tanzu: The vSphere Admin’s Easy Button for Kubernetes [APP1435]” I think will provide everyone with simple, uncomplicated knowledge. The last session, not so much a typical session, providing knowledge is HoL or Hands on Lab “vSphere with Tanzu [GWS-HOL-221-01-SDC]” where everyone interested will have the opportunity to try all the goodness related to Tanzu in the environment.
The last track on the VMworld 2021 list is “Multi-Cloud” here you can see my interest as well as the number of good sessions. Personally, I have added as many as 58 sessions with different levels of advancement to my favorites here. From the very beginning, although the session is not very technical because with the Technical level 100, however, what’s new sessions always interest me and it is no different with this session “A Big Uprade on vRealize Operations [MCL1277]”. The information that I will collect in the session “A Discussion on vRealize Automation with AVS, GCVE, & OCVS Solutions [MCL1272]” will allow me to work better in the world of Multi-Cloud. A demo session led by Martijn Smit and Brandon Gordon “An End-to-End Demo of Operationalizing VMware Hybrid Clouds with vRealize [MCL1263]” will provide information on hybrid topics in conjunction with the vRealize family. Another session chosen by the name of the teacher. William Lam and Yuvraj Mehta will meet us at “App Modernization Deep Dive with VMware Cloud on AWS and VMware Tanzu [MCL2290]”. If you have always disliked licensing topics like me, go with me to the meeting “A to Z of vRealize Licensing and Packaging [MCL1116]” and even though I am not a trader and an engineer, I think that this dose of knowledge will be useful to everyone . I have many sessions here, selected from the Design Studio family, where we can speak and topics related to new releases, what engineers and developers can change to further improve the product. One such session is “Enhance VMware Cloud Foundation SDDC Capabilities – Design Studio [UX2554]”, another is “Gather Isights to Improve VMware Cloud Universal – Design Studio [UX2585]”. If you know and like vRealize Automation as much as I do, the session whose title is “Extending the Capabilities of VMware vRealize Automation [MCL2719]” should give you shivers the same as mine. A powerful tool to extend even further ??? I’m already waiting for what I’ll find out there. If you live in the world of vRealize Automation 7.x, you should be interested in the “Migrating to vRealize Automation 8x [MCL2449]” session where we will all find out what we need to migrate. Although I could list these sessions like this, but the last two that I personally recommend are “VMware Cloud Foundation Tips and Tricks from the Trenches [MCL1025]” at Technical 300 level and “vRealize Automation – Now and into the Future [MCL2448]”.
I hope to meet you at at least one of the sessions that I have listed here. Remember, however, that man does not live with only technical sessions, so I do not know about you, but I am looking forward to the main session with the new CEO. I haven’t met Raghu personally, but I hope that I will manage to do it someday and in the meantime I will listen deeply to his message for next year.
Phew, how much content today, but as you can see VMworld is not a tiny meeting in a garage, it’s a huge IT conference where I, as your evangelist and my current employer IT Solution Factor, will gain knowledge and skills so that everyone willgain something for themselves but also for you our clients a set of tools to deliver whatever you can come up with in line with this year’s theme “Imagine that”.
VMworld 2021 we are waiting …