VMworld Copenhagen – my 2 cents on things to see and do…

VMworld Copenhagen is right around the corner (next week!!!)  I’m hoping to see you there!

Believe it or not – you can click on the link below and STILL get the EMC Early-Bird Registration rate…

I did a whole “Top 10” series for VMworld (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10) – here, I’ll wrap it up in a single tight blog post :-)

One fun little factoid for people who read the blog – I run a half-marathon on Sunday, right before getting on the flight to Copenhagen.  So if I look a little… out of it… don’t assume that I drank too much the night before :-)

So – key things to see/do!

1.  The hands on labs

Same deal as in VMworld Vegas – I think the Hands-on-labs are one of the best ways to learn, and interact.   Why go to a session and HEAR about it, when you can go to the HoL and DRIVE IT.   Plus, as industry followers know, you never know when some vendor claiming to have “saved the HoL” (always a load of hoo-ha) and general in-fighting will result in a furious flame from an EMC executive on The Register (I caught some heat for that one) :-)

Like in Vegas – EMC will support Partner Hands-on-Labs in the VMware HoL, and also some vLabs for intimate EMC experiences – loads of chances to play with some fun kit!

2.  Sessions!

Here’s my recommended session calendar:

Tuesday

• 09.00 - 10.00 - Find out What’s New & What’s Next in Virtualization and Cloud Management
• 10:30 – 11:30 - BCO2479 – Understanding VMware vSphere Stretched Clusters, Disaster Recovery, and Workload Mobility (repeated on Thursday).   Lee and I were not allowed to talk about the new vSphere Metro Stretched Cluster support and HCL category at VMworld in Vegas, but now it’s public, so we’re adding it.
• 10:30 – 11:30 GD32 - vSphere and vCloud Director Group Discussion - I’m a big fan of the group discussion format – it’s more intimate and interactive than a breakout session. Plus, I think the world of Massimo. He’s been involved in a lot of the vCD projects I’ve seen in Europe, so brings a lot of real-world experience.
• 12.00 - 13.00 - Transitioning to ESXi
• 13:30 – 14:30 - SPO3977 – Next-Generation Storage and Backup for Your Cloud – the cat is out of the bag on this – it is a monster session, jam-packed with stuff.   Literally I’m showing the next couple of years of cool stuff.  If you’re an EMC customer (or using storage or backup of any kind with VMware – so all of you) this should be a good session.  Couple it with VSP3205 and you have the future of storage mapped out.
• 15.30 - 17.00: Steve Herrod, CTO and SVP of R&D

Wednesday

• 09.00 - 10.00 -  Raghu Raghuram, Senior VP and General Manager of Cloud Platforms
• 10:30 – 11:30 - BCA2320 – VMware vSphere 5: Best Practices for Oracle RAC Virtualization
• 12:00 – 1:00 – VSP3205 - Technology Preview: VMware vStorage APIs for VM and Application Granular Data Management (Vijay and Satyam from VMware).   I had to HINT at this before VMworld Vegas – but now the cat is out of the bag.  This is the “future of VMware storage” session, and is very interesting, and very eye-opening.  It’s what we’re working on in the more long-term view (as neither block nor NAS models suit virtualization particularly perfectly).   I would strongly suggest going.  And YES, I will be doing a post on this, I committed to hold off until after VMworld.   Do this and SPO3977 and you have the secret decoder ring on EMC’s next few years of R&D mapped out.
• 13:30-14:30 – GD10 - Site Recovery Manager Group Discussion - I’m a big fan of the group discussion format – it’s more intimate and interactive than a breakout session. Plus, I think the world of Lee. He rocks, and is, in essence, “mr. SRM” at VMware (and a good dude too).
• 13:30 – 14:30 - BCA1931 – Design, Deploy, and Optimize SharePoint 2010 on vSphere
• 15:00 – 16:00 - CIM2343 – Building a Real-Life High-Performance Financial Services Cloud
• 15:00 – 16:00 - VSP1926 – Getting Started in vSphere Design – with Scott Lowe!
• 15:00 – 16:00 – VSP1682 - vSphere Clustering QnA - Duncan, Frank, Chris Colotti – authors of one of the authoritative books on the topic (I have my copies) presenting on the topic. I’ll be there with books in hand to get signed :-)
• 16:30 – 17:30 - GD48 vFabric Data Director with June Yang.  Group discussions rock, and vFabric Data Director (vFDD) was a huge part of VMworld Vegas, and people need to see it. To drive people to this – let me say the following: “Hint: VMware is INTENTIONALLY trying to keep this topic quiet” (best way to get people to go :-)

Thursday

• 09.00 - 10.30- Paul Maritz, CEO
• 11:00 – 12:00 - SPO3978 – EMC IT: How We Accelerated Our Journey to the Cloud
• 11:00 – 12:00 – GD10 - Site Recovery Manager Group Discussion - I’m a big fan of the group discussion format – it’s more intimate and interactive than a breakout session. Plus, I think the world of Lee. He rocks, and is, in essence, “mr. SRM” at VMware (and a good dude too).
• 12:30 – 13:30 - BCO2479 – Understanding VMware vSphere Stretched Clusters, Disaster Recovery, and Workload Mobility
• 12:30 – 13:30 – CAP2154 - Powering database-as-a-service for your cloud with vFabric Data Director With June Yang.   vFabric Data Director (vFDD) was a huge part of VMworld Vegas, and people need to see it.  To drive people to this – let me say the following: “Hint: VMware is INTENTIONALLY trying to keep this topic quiet” (best way to get people to go :-)
• 14:00 – 15:00 – VSP2376 - Performance and Scalability enhancements in VMware vStorage VMFS-5
  Again – the content will rock, but so will the presenter. Mostafa is a senior support escalation engineer – so has the battlescars and lessons to share. He has presented at VMworld for years, and people like his content. I find I end up using Mostafa’s content for subsequent years.

3. Tweet ups!

Tweet-ups may sound dorky – well they kind of are :-)  But hey, it’s a pretty dorky (but fun!) event as a whole – we’re all dorks :-)  A tweetup is in essence a group session, with online folks asking questions too via Twitter.   They are a great way to interact, ask questions.  It’s a panel format, so people can come by the EMC Booth at noon every day for an intimate and fun group discussion…

• Tuesday 18 October

• Host: Tom Hayes
• Topic: VCE Simplifies and Speeds VMware Virtual Data Center Delivery with New Vblock Management Capabilities
• (Yes, it's a long title, but it's worth it, trust me...) Tom works in EMC's Infrastructure Management Group. I'm not (yet) allowed to divulge too many details about this topic, so, for now, suffice it to say that he'll be speaking about new ways to make deployment and management of the VCE Vblock even easier and faster than it already is today.

• Wednesday 19 October

• Host:Chad Sakac (@sakacc)
• Topic: The New vSphere 5 Metro Stretched Cluster: What It Is, What Does It Mean, When Should You Use It?
• Long-time members of our online community already know Chad, either from his quarterly "Chad's Choice" webcast, his Virtual Geek blog, or from episodes of Chad's World, so he needs no further introduction here. Chad will be speaking about a brand-new category on the VMware Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) -- the vSphere Metro Stretched Cluster. These new fully-supported-by-VMware stretched cluster configurations are made possible by changes to the VMware vSphere 5 behavior of VMware High Availability (HA) and VMware Dynamic Resource Scheduler (DRS). Chad will talk you through what this all means as well as answer any questions about when a Metro Stretched Cluster might be an ideal solution and when it might not be the best fit. You can get a preview of this meetup by reading Chad's blog post on this topic.

• Thursday 20 October

• Hosts:Simon Seagrave (@Kiwi_Si) and Chris Horn (@Horn_Chris)
• Topic: Building a Successful Hands-on Lab Environment
• Simon and Chris are both members of EMC"s vSpecialist Technical Enablement Team. They'll use their real-world experience creating virtual environments for the Hands-on vLabs at EMC World, EMC's part of the VMware Hands-on Lab at VMworld US, and the EMC Interactive Demo Area at VMworld USto explain what's involved in the creation of successful labs from first having the idea to running the environment live on-site and everything in-between. They'll answer any questions you have about how to create the total-immersion learning tool -- the Hands-on Lab.

4.  The PARTIES!

Work hard during the day – and celebrate at night!   

Monday… The vGEEK Party!  It’s from 7pm-11pm on Monday night.   Since this is before the conference starts it’s bound to be good :-) It’s actually become a bit of a tradition – we hold it for the VMware SEs, Cisco Datacenter folks, EMC competitors who want to raise a pint in celebration of the battle, and of course the EMC vSpecialists.   Basically – a celebration of our brothers/sisters in arms – those who are customer-facing nerds – we salute you!   It’s at the Appollo Brewery, which is right beside the Tivoli park – a famous Copenhagen landmark.  Technically invite only, but find Wade O’Harrow, Bertrand Lalanne, Paula Cuddy, Karen Agnew or I and we’ll work something out.

Tuesday… The EMC Customer appreciation party!  It starts at 7pm on Tuesday.  We figured “when in Rome…” so since it’s in Copenhagen, that would make the Carlsberg Brewery the natural place :-)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday… The mandatory party of them all of course is the VMware party – from 8pm to midnight!

Again – really hoping to see you there!!!