VMWorld 2015 – Day 2

Day 1 was quit the experience, despite it being a ‘lite’ day. Day 2 is when things really get going with sessions getting into full swing and the keynote address.

The first session I attended was vCenter Server Appliance as a “first Choice” which was packed. Some of the highlights included covering the migration process from a traditional Windows install to the VCSA. The general consensus seems to be that there really isn’t much of a reason to run the Windows version any more as the appliance version is at least at parity, if not higher, for all of the features and minimums. Of note is that Update Manager still requires a Windows server to run on. In a later session by William Lam (@lamw) it was noted that future updates on the vSphere web client will include VUM functionality (note that you’ll still need the VUM server).

The keynote has received really mixed feedback. No huge products were announced, more or less evolutions were presented:

• EVO:RACK is now EVO:SDDC which includes vRealize Suite, NSX 6.2, vSAN 6.1, vSphere 6, and EVO:SDDC Manager;
• Project Skyscraper – a cross cloud vMotion technology. It is worth noting that Mike Preston essentially did this a few months ago on his own.
• VirtuStream: acquired earlier this year by EMC – basically they provide ‘micro VMs’ which have limited resources as far as compute goes. The VMs are then tweaked for performance. I suppose they are looking to deliver cost savings by letting folks run their workloads in the cloud while minimizing the need to pay for unused compute.
• vSphere Integrated Containers: probably the most buzz from the keynote. This basically allows the containers to be presented as VMs, thus allowing management of containers through the vSphere client.

A good chunk of my afternoon was spent in the Hang Space where I got to watch a lot of the #vBrownBag stuff go on. There was some great content and most of it is already up on YouTube. Check out http://professionalvmware.com/ for all of their content.

Between the Hang Space and the Solutions Exchange, I had a chance to talk with a lot of smart people – users, bloggers, and sales engineers. A couple of the chats that I really enjoyed were from SolidFire who took the time to answer my questions for a good 20 minutes or so, as well as Pernix Data. I wasn’t overly familiar with Pernix Data and after talking to them I see where all the buzz is coming from (I might do a write up at some point).

My day at the sessions was capped off with hopping between the Defining You Future With NSX and vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) Best Practices & Tips/Tricks. Good content in both, and I am quite happy that the streams will be available after the fact as I am sure that I’ll be re-watching them.

The evening was capped off first with a quick stop by a Veeam VIP party which focused mainly on their Cloud Connect partners. Their Cloud Connect is a nice integration into the Backup & Recovery product in that it automatically takes care of the offsite process for your backups (while optimizing them the whole way).

I then headed out to the community driven vBrisket event. I ended up tagging along with Ryan Harris and while we were there we ran into a lot of great people and had some fantastic conversations. It is truly amazing how so many of these folks that you might follow on Twitter are the ones that you just organically have conversations with. As I have eluded to previously, the social networking that can be done at VMWorld is unparalleled.

Well, off to get Day 3 started.