The Superbowl of IT events, VMWorld 2014 US is fast approaching (end of August).  Why would I call it the Superbowl of IT events?  Even though there are bigger attendance events this is the one that unites most end users, vendors, analysts, and press. Big reason? The opportunity! Opportunity to transform, opportunity to connect, opportunity to learn and set your roadmap. One of the most interesting parts of VMWorld is the community. At no other event have I seen people come together to unite in a community like VMWorld. If you are not part of that experience seek it out on the show floor, as you meet people, in sessions, or connect to any of the vExperts you might meet during the week.  Connect with me and I’ll make intros. Also below are a set of factors to look for in the week long experience:

SolidFire in Full Effect #SFControlFreak

Ok, full disclosure I now work for SolidFire. One of the reason I joined them (highlighted in this previous blog) is because I’ve highlighted some of the sessions above but also want to call out a few more items of relevance;

• The SolidFire/VMWorld site
• The socks and drone (DJI Phantom 2 Vision flying camera) giveway
• The free VMWorld pass
• The vExpert Giveaway (Bose Headphones)
• The Solution Show Floor – booth #1629, come find us and see some crazy stuff, win some cool stuff
• The Suite at the W – Book a private briefing at the finest suite at VMWorld. Oh yeah we can fill it will VIP’s/topics of your choosing.
• The VMware Solution Affinity – If you combine our at-scale ( from 4 nodes to 100 nodes, 7.5 m iops, 3.5 pb) all-flash storage solution with QoS, Helix Raidless High Availability, and Multi-tenancy + VMware VASA, VAAI, SIOC, vCAC, View, and early VVols partner = boom! Find us and here more.
• The killer team of people – join myself and/or any of these rockstars like my fellow vExperts Aaron Delp, Jeramiah Dooley, Josh Atwell, and also Aaron Patten (VDI guru), Derek Leslie, McClain Buggle, Gene Kussman, and THE list of VIP’s; Dave Cahill, Adam Carter, Greg Machon, Brian McCloskey, RJ Weigel, Jay Prassi, James Whitemore, and our CEO/Founder and the presenter at Tech Field Day, Dave Wright!

The Messages at VMWorld (I borrowed the image from TIG above) 

VMWorld will have a resounding boom as VMware accelerates it’s Software Defined Enterprise vision. You will see a number of key highlights on

• Software Defined Data Center – VMware will unpack lot of storage futures around Virtual Volumes (VVols) based on the need to redefine granularity of controls for VM’s (and IMO the control plane) and scale. You will also hear more about NSX and network virtualization (super hot).  The most significant IMO will be how all this get’s assembled via policy control and automation via VMware’s Management Suite.
• End User Computing – You’ll hear more about Horizon Suite and the integration of Airwatch to the portfolio. This is beyond VDI and will be a must see as all of us are users of computing so the relevance of this space is super interesting. Also look for more integration point of vC Ops and vCAC into the Horizon family.
• vCloud Hybrid Service – You will hear about more advancements of integration
• CTO’s – Yes you’ll hear from Ben Fathi, VMware’s CTO, but you’ll also probably hear from the other CTO’s like Kit Colbert (EUC) and Chris Wolf (CTO America’s). Maybe not as they just announced the keynote speakers but you will hear from them in sessions and other venues. These guys bring new voices to VMware in those roles (even though Kit is a VMware veteran).  I’ll be interested to hear their messages and vision.
• 3 key words – 3rd Platform (2nd Platform is client/server, 3rd Platform is mobile/cloud) will be heavily mentioned as will “tectonic shift” and of course the most abused word in all of IT speak; ending sentences with the word “right” (count it sometime)
• Ecosystem
  • Flash – You can tell this space is hot when hybrid (disk and flash) solutions start unveiling all flash solutions. Last year AFA was considered a niche for specific workloads and now IT organizations are rapidly deploying “Flash First” strategies where all workloads that can go on flash should go on flash.  Disclosure; I work for SolidFire.
  • EUC – Seek out LakeSide Software, LiquidWare Labs, and Dell. LakeSide has the best command and control assessment to operations EUC tool in the market.  LiquidWare also has an outstanding tool for assessments, operational command, but also for fills a key void for persona management. Dell has a unique ability to sell the Desktone software VMware now has in the Horizon Suite called Horizon DaaS. So if you’re looking for multi-tenant Desktop as a Service with guaranteed quality of service there are 2 ways to adopt; vCHS DaaS Cloud hosted or Dell DaaS on premise.
  • Convergence – This space is hot. Everything from Hyper-Convergence to Reference Architecture is in demand because IT needs to address the speed of business and their responsiveness.  There’s also desire to simplify the custom build erector set that IT has been. SolidFire will be featuring it’s Agile Infrastructure with special announcements at VMWorld. That effort is now being headed by Jeramiah Dooley (formerly of VCE so he knows a lot about convergence).
  • Management & ITSM – VMware’s crown jewel HAS to be the management business unit! You’ll her more about not just management with vC Ops but more importantly automation schemes powered by vCAC and vCO.  You’ll also probably seem more about IT Business Management (ITBM). Not much has been said yet on this product.  This was born our of VMware’s Accelerate group (ninja’s, Eric Ledyard, etc) and brings to market a business dashboard for IT to manage assets like you would manage your 401k online. Lastly, check out ServiceNow. IT Service Management (ITSM) is the cornerstone for business value in delivering ITaaS. There is no HOTTER company that ServiceNow. Why and What matters here for VMWorld?  ServiceNow has a unified engine for not just service desk but also for management of IT assets, workflow automation, consumption layering, you name it.

What happening that week?  (Events)

VMware has a great public listing of events here and below I’ve highlighted some I’m hitting;

vBrownBag Opening Acts, vOdgeball, VMunderground WuPaaS, SolidFire’s vBeer Tasting event (with special vExpert giveaway), vFlipCup Tweetup, vExpert/VCDX Party, the infamous @commsninja’s vBacon event,  Dell Immersion, #cloudtalk tweetup, VMworld party, @BeerTweetup, and the unofficial after-party; vStogies🙂

Sessions I’m highlighting;

• STO1965 – Virtual Volumes Technical Deep Dive, Rawlinson Rivera – Sr. Technical Marketing Architect, VMware, Suzy Visvanathan – Product Manager, VMware, Tuesday 4 pm
• STP3317 – Delivering Guaranteed Storage Performance using VMware’s VVOLs Aaron Delp, Cloud Architect, SolidFire Tuesday 8/26 1:50-2:10pm
• STO2142-SPO – Hypervisor & Storage QoS; Two Great Tastes that Taste Great Together, Rawlinson Rivera, VMware, Adam Carter, SolidFire Tuesday 8/26 2:30-3:30pm
• STO2480 – Software Defined Storage – The VCDX Way Part II : The Empire Strikes Back, Rawlinson Rivera + Wade Holmes – Senior Architect, VMware, Wednesday 8:30 am
• #vBrownBag Tech Talk: Agile Infrastructure: a new architecture Keith Norbie + Jeramiah Dooley, SolidFire Wednesday 8/27 4:45pm
• MGT1923 – vCloud Automation Center 6 and Storage Policy-Based Management Framework Integration, Rawlinson Rivera + Chen Wei – Solution Engineer – Strategic Solutions Development, vmware, Thursday 10:30 am (Magic?)
• EUC2039 – Horizon 6 Storage Architecture Concepts: Designing for success in 2014, Tristan Todd – Sr Systems Engineer, VMware, Jim Yanik – End User Computing Architect, VMware, Thursday noon
• #vBrownBag Tech Talk: Flash Decisions Keith Norbie, Sr. Business Development Mgr, SolidFire Thursday 8/28 12:15pm
• #vBrownBag Tech Talk: VMware Horizon at Scale – Solving for Storage Keith Norbie + Aaron Patten, SolidFire Thursday 8/28 2:00pm

Is it too late to go? No! There are plenty of ways to get to VMWorld. One’s mentioned above and there are several more out there.

Look me up before or at VMWorld; Keith Norbie, @keithnorbie  …let’s hang, chat, and learn.