VMware Partner Exchange 2011–Recap and Content

UPDATED Feb 23/2001 8:51am – Fixed the PEX deck link.

Well – another VMware PEX has come and gone, and PEX 2011 was a doozy   This is actually one of my favorite events of the year – it’s more intimate in some ways than VMworld.   Plus, you see people who are in an important sense - all in the boat with you – rowing as furiously as you are.

From an EMC standpoint We dialed it up to 12 this year…

• EMC was the most attended pre-conference boot camp (ones were held by Cisco, NetApp, Dell and HP).  We had # attendees, more than 20% more than the next closest – that’s the extra 20% they get for choosing EMC :-)   We must be doing something right!   This was recorded, and is below.
• We held a VMware/EMC HoL  - I didn’t see anything like it from anyone else.   Similar to VMworld, where there is a massive HoL (which like VMworld, we help do our part to power with EMC unified kit… Currently several NS-960s with SSD, 10GbE and FAST/FAST Cache)   BUT – it’s 100% VMware centric.   No opportunity (understandably) to play with VMware/EMC integrations like the VSI vCenter plugin, PP/VE, Replication Manager, Avamar and more.    So – we run a second much smaller, but no less cool HoL focused on VMware+EMC.   BTW, I talked to the VMware HoL (the big one) team who are awesome folks – would like to try it on a VNX/big Isilon cluster at future things…
• We challenged attendees to take the “EMC No BS Challenge”.  If they went to the VMware/EMC HoL and tried the stuff for themselves, then wore the “EMC No BS Challenge” hat, they won one of 3 iPads.
• We had a killer booth, with lots of schwag.   I think though that this one took the cake – one of the folks that visited our booth won a VNXe!
• There was a great VCE booth – which was packed constantly, and had a working Vblock 1 config humming along.
• We held a VMware/EMC Partner Appreciation event to thank our partners.
• We opened the exhibitor pavillion with a demo that I personally thought was, as advertised (this was the title of the session): "Face Melting VMware/EMC coolness - today and tomorrow".   This was recorded, so if you want to see for yourself, see below.

I want to thank everyone who made this happen – but most of all, Jessica Doyle.   Jessica – it wouldn’t have happened without you!   Second of all – the awesome vSpecialist Tech Enablement team (Chris, Tee, Simon)

Most important of course though was meeting friends, colleagues from VMware and the partner community.  THANK YOU!

For more detail - including recordings of the EMC PEX keynote with a bunch of crazy stuff, softcopies of the EMC bootcamp keynote, and also that face-melting demo we did in the exhibit hall… read on!

1.  EMC Bootcamp:

For the diamond sponsors, it starts with a day-long boot camp for their partners, before the event really starts.   This is a great chance to thank our partners, and to share what we’re doing to help them be even more successful.

I held the EMC bootcamp keynote, and there were killer presentations by many folks throughout the day.  The keynote was recorded, and I’ve linked to it below.

VMware PEX 2011 - EMC Bootcamp Keynote from Chad Sakac on Vimeo.

You can download a soft-copy of the deck I used by clicking below (useful to see the slides that are behind me as I’m talking in the video).

 

It was a JAM packed room.  In fact, my apologies to the folks who couldn’t get in.

 

2.  Theatre presentation.   Right at the end of the bootcamp day, when the exhibitor pavilion opened up, the platinum sponsors had a SHORT 20 minute theatre presentation.   We decided to do something different – instead of the usual “EMC/VMware love fest” discussion (“look at how much we rock together!”) we wanted to try something different.

We did what we’re calling the “Minority Report” demo – where we use the awesome tech developed by Nick Weaver (vSpecialist extraordinaire) which allows the user to control VMs in vCenter using hand gestures alone.   It’s really cool – uses a Microsoft Kinect coupled with a laptop running the code he developed.

Chad Sakac using Interactive Cloud from Nicholas Weaver on Vimeo.

3. The EMC booth was great.   We had solid booth folks, and I dig the new “small event” booth (i.e. what we will use for things like PEX, vForums – as opposed to VMworld, EMC World…).   It’s handy, has 4 stations, and good whiteboard space.   The pics below are “just before the exhibition starts”

It got more fun as some nuts decided they wanted to do a contest to encourage people to go and try the EMC Hands-on-Lab.    We called it the “Take the EMC No B.S. Challenge”, and it was awesome.    You go to the HoL, do the labs, and then be seen wearing the hat the next day and you won one of 3 iPads.

As we were getting ready the week prior we thought it would be funny to have “No B.S. Guarantee!” stamps made, and lo and behold, we got it done.   Some were a little too agro with their stamping, as seen in the shot below:

We decided that it wasn’t enough… We wanted to give away a VNXe for people who scanned at the booth… but we didn’t have one to give away.   So, the team decided at the 11th hour that we would simply give away the unit that we’re using in the booth itself.  

4. The EMC Hands-on-Labs

I’m insanely proud to be a member/leader of the vSpecialist squad.   The “go anywhere, do anything” attitude is exemplified in particular by the tech enablement team.   While everyone on the team works with customers, work on cool projects, works with HQ – some people one the team are MORE focused on supporting a given geography (both EMC’s field and EMC’s partners in that geo), other people are MORE focused on enabling all the others (the field vSpecialists, EMC’s overall field, and EMC’s partners).   On this team are Chris Horn, Simon Seagrave, Tee Glassgow and more folks to come).   This tech enablement team supports this mobile “HoL” – and it’s no mean feat to maintain and roll around (you can see that the Wyse terminals are supported from the mobile half cabinet in the picture below).

And here it is during a relatively light period…

THANK YOU to everyone and everyone who supported the event, and THANK YOU to EMC and VMware partners!

If there are things you think we could have done better/differently – please let me know…

Comments

[Keith Norbie]

Killer stuff Chad. Man you guys have progressed very far with your offering since the early days. I'm proud of how you take the high road and focus on great tech! I enjoyed seeing you and Wade. We go a long way back and I've really gravitated to PEX because it's partners only.

[Dpironet]

Am I reading that correctly... You guys gave away a VNXe...
OMG that's definitely more valuable than the regular goodies :)

[Elliott]

Hey Chad - is the link to the PPT correct? Can't download anonymously...

[Olaf]

The correct link to the PPT is.

ftp.documentum.com/vmwarechampion/Events/Partner_Exchange/Americas_2011/Sakac_EMC_PEX_Keynote_non_confidential.pptx

[Hilary]

Hi Chad - Great to see you at the Partner Exchange! Fantastic sessions and great content. One of the best ever... P.S. I hope they found your luggage!