VMworld Europe "Fun" Run

As I mentioned earlier, Steve Bryant-Brown have been chatting recently about running while we'll be in Copenhagen for VMworld Europe.  We're both training for upcoming half marathons so we thought 6 miles would be a good training run.

I know this is a little long for most of the IT folks out there and it really puts it into the "Fun" Run category but if anybody out there is interested, please leave a comment with your name and a way to reach you (Twitter handle probably preferred) or get in touch with either of us on Twitter.

We're flexible on a course and time but right now we're thinking Wednesday evening after most of the session and before the party.  Neither of us have run in Copenhagen before but I found this route online that looks popular and takes you through some popular running spots.  We hope to see you there!

Here's a link to the proposed course: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=5127481

VMware VMworld Europe - Be There!

Sorry to be silent for a bit, work is crazy and going through a bit of a transition (more on that another day).

I wanted to pass along that I will be attending VMworld Europe for the first time and I can't wait!

A number of vExperts have posted about why you need to be there.  Rather than write another similar post, I'll refer you to their excellent posts!

• Jason Boche's VMworld Europe Is Ready And Waiting For You
• WoodITWork's Can You Afford Not To Go To VMworld Europe?

What will I be doing while I'm there?  For the most part I'll be working in the VCE Booth, stop by and say Hi!

I'm also working on a Cloudcast (.NET) from Copenhagen as well as a 10k Fun Run along with Steve Bryant-Brown.  Details on both events as well as VCE's official schedule as everything develops.  Stay tuned and thanks for coming by!

VMworld Tuesday General Session Live Blog

This one is going to be "live".  No editing, no proofreading, nothing.  I'm sitting at the blogger's table for the Tuesday General Session and I'll be taking the notes the whole time and then I'm going to hit submit "as is".  Please excuse this if it turns out a little more "raw" than other posts.

Here's a couple of pics from prior to the start as the crowd is filing in:

• Intro video is on the screen. Project Octopus is mentioned...  Links content to devices to people
• Dr. Herrod (CTO) is on the stage
• He is highlighting a few of the products
• We need to move above managing device -> What does the user really need?
• It's now about Universal Access from all devices at all times with high expectations

• Video about how the way we work and collaborate is changing
• it's not about provisioning machines, it's about user data and their access to the data
• IT still has control of the platform!
• users dictate the work style now with IT enabling this new style
• Dr. Herrod is back 
• How do put all the devices, users, and data all together?
• Need to Simplify, extract from silos that exist today
• Manage all this in a new way
• Windows more manageable and secure View with ThinApp
• Focus going forward will be an App Catalog Service as well as Data Service
• He introduced the concept of a Unified Service Broker to connect all this together to provide Secure Universal Access
• He is taking us through each area in turn from the perspective of both the administrator and the user
• Talking about View 5 - showing automated pool creation with Link Clones.  Creates about 1000 desktops in about an hour.  More automation and provisioning in View
• App Catalog Service - New Project -> ThinApp Factory, patches and automation for applications ties into Project Horizon
• Project Horizon will be Windows apps as well as mobile apps
• ThinApp Factory allows you to create ThinApps easily and prepares them for insertion into the catalog -> It will fire up a virtual machine, install the app, and create the package, all automated
• Assign apps to groups and users for access so app catalog will be specialized per user for what the catalog will display
• Tracks user licenses upon application activation
• Onto to Data Service -> Project Octopus
• He mentions Dropbox - He many are using it and how many SHOULD be using it :)
• Dropbox service for the enterprise
• Policies based on users and groups depends on what you can share
• Controls the sharing of sensitive data, the idea of sharing expiration and also group based security
• Delivered via public and private cloud (no details given though)
• Now a demonstration from the user perspective
• Gives a demonstration of View 5 -> pulls up Windows 7 desktop
• App Catalog is provided after desktop, new user can activate and install apps based on their role in the enterprise
• User would have pre-populated user shares based on Project Octopus permissions
• Activate a mobile device from the App Catalog and it will push the applications and file sharing to the new phone
• App on the mobile phone will be a "VDI device" on the phone, apps appear on the phone in a new "enterprise area".  It's a phone within a phone and you can switch contexts back and forth with Horizon Mobile on the mobile device
• More demonstrations about the Horizon Mobile
• Showing Excel modification on iPad using AppBlast
• Showing SocialCast on an iPad
• WAN based TCP/IP call on iPad
• AppBlast -> delivering applications over HTML5
• This is a labs project right now
• If you have a home phone, you can wipe the "work device" (the Horizon mobile device within a device) without wiping the personal device.
• It's all about managing data, people, and applications in a post-PC era

 

• Giving a demonstration of the upcoming rev to the iPad vSphere Client
• vMotion now enabled
• What does the back end to all of this look like?
• vSphere 5 is now available
• 200 new features
• It should just work and work well, that is the goal
• Talked VMware Go for a bit
• VSA is mentioned since Go is designed for SMB (small/medium business market)
• The VSA make it easy to deploy and manage shared storage using local servers instead of a SAN
• Now talking AutoDeploy for larger enterprises
• PXE boot stateless servers
• Talking performance
• Biggest virtual machine ever - over 1,000,000 iops!
• Performance guarantees
• How do we solve the noisy neighbor problem?
• Storage Pooling
• The concept of Tiered Storage and placement of vm's
• This allows critical apps to be Tier 1, less critical Tier 2, etc.
• Storage DRS, moving vm's around in pool
• The combination of all of these features allows for SLA's to be generated

At this point I had to bail to prepare for a video interview.  I'm sorry but I won't be able to blog the last 30 minutes of the session.

VMworld Day 1 Wrap Up

Yesterday (I'm writing this early Tuesday morning) was my "free day".  If this was my "free day", the rest of the week is going to be crazy!  After today, my schedule calms down a bit on the job front and I plan to walk the Expo Floor and talk to a bunch of other companies and I'll be reporting back my discussions with them here.  Look for that in the Day 3 and Day 4 wrap ups!

Back to Day 1 - I spent a large portion of my morning hanging out in the blogger's lounge.  If I'm not working the VCE booth this week, look for me in the blogger's lounge.  It was great to see old friends and I was able to crowd source many of the questions from the live Cloudcast (.NET) from some of the super smart folks there.  Here's a few pics of the lounge:

Every VMworld has an "unofficial theme".  By that I mean what area is generating the most interest and buzz at the conference.  This year most of the people I spoke to were interested in Automation & Orchestration.  Everything from PowerCLI, vCO, Tidal & New Scale, Cloupia, etc.  You name it, people were talking about it.  As the VMware product set matures and also becomes more complex, customers are demanding more efficient ways to provision and manage their resources.

I was also fortunate to be invited to a meeting with the Open Stack folks along with Brian Gracely.  We picked their brains about Open Stack and came away with a greater understanding of their product and I was very impressed.  Look for more information on Open Stack in future Cloudcast (.NET) podcasts.

After Open Stack, it was time for the Cloudcast (.NET) live from VMworld.  All I can say it Holy Crap that was fun!  Mike and Chris were awesome and they are some SUPER SMART dudes!  We can't thank them enough for coming on and speaking with us!

My company, VCE, also announced a new product, the FastPath Desktop Virtualization Platform.

I wasn't able to attend the General Session so I won't be able to comment on that (but I should be at the rest of the General Sessions doing live blogs).

After that is was time for the Expo Floor to open up.  The amount of people on the show floor were amazing!  I was working the VCE booth and the interest in our products was overwhelming!  Here's a few pics from the floor:

That's a wrap for Day 1 at VMworld.  My week ramps up from here so come by for future daily wrap up articles!

The Cloudcast (.NET) LIVE from VMworld!

This was SOOOOO  cool!  VMware asked us to do a Cloudcast (.NET) podcast live form VMworld!  This is what we're like without editing!  Our guests were Chris Colotti from VMware and Mike Foley from RSA.  Check out this link for the show notes and more information.  I also embedded the video here.

My only comment, it's much harder to do this when you don't have a beer in your hand, there's lights in your face, and your laptop with all the questions is sitting over in the corner!  All in all, it turned out really well and Mike and Chris were GREAT!

Watch live streaming video from vmwarecommunitytv at livestream.com

VCE's FastPath Desktop Virtualization Platform is Here!

Just a short time ago, VCE announced a new product, the FastPath Desktop Virtualization Platform. FastPath is a custom solution that allows you to quickly and easily get up and running with VMware View. Benefits Include: 

• Single Order – VMware View Premier licenses (including support and maintenance) are included
• Seamless Support Extended to Include View – VCE has extended support to include View! You’ve heard me talk before about View running “on top” of a Vblock. With FastPath, View support is “inside” the Vblock 
• Rapid Provisioning, Setup & Configuration – Standing up a View environment has never been easier! Apply power and network connections to the Vblock, complete the Wizard (screenshots included below), upload a VDI “Golden Master” Image, and go get some coffee or maybe lunch and the FastPath Platform will take care of the rest! 
• Validated Platform – The FastPath Platform has already completed testing for common VDI pain points (boot storms) and the entire Platform is designed for resiliency and reliability 
• First Product to Utilize the UIM API’s – This is the first product VCE has introduced that hooks into UIM’s API’s for provisioning and configuration. You’ll see much more of this in the future
• Factory Reset – The FastPath Platform was built with the ability to quickly and easily hit the “Reset” button and set everything back to factory defaults. Great for POC and lab environments! 

Check out VCE’s FastPath Landing Path for more information: http://www.vce.com/fastpath

Here are some screenshots (click for a larger view) of the FastPath Platform Wizard:

If you are at VMworld this week, stop by VCE’s Booth (#1121) to see a demonstration or to speak with somebody about this exciting new product!

VMworld Day 0 Wrap Up

I have no idea if this is going to actually work or not but I'm going to attempt a post everyday of VMworld.  Considering my schedule most days starts at 8:00am and lasts until well past midnight, I have my doubts...

I was lucky enough to catch an early flight out Saturday morning.  How lucky was I?  This picture of the board at Raleigh/Durham Airport will give you a clue.  I just happened to be flying Delta and connecting through Atlanta.  That's pretty much the only reason I made it.  Before I go any further, my thoughts and prayers are with everyone affected by Hurricane Irene.  There's WAY more too life than VMworld!!

After arrival, I checked into the Venetian (what an incredible place!) and headed over to the VCE booth to check out the progress.  If you ever wanted to see the behind the scenes of the expo floor being built, here ya go:

Lastly, right next to the Expo Floor is the VMworld "Hang Space".  I can say I have seen anything like this.  It is amazing how elaborate it is!  It is part indoor park and playground (basketball courts!) along with the "Big Board" on the back wall and all the social areas and recording studios around the edges.  Simply amazing:

Sunday brought more booth work and then John Troyer's excellent vExpert session.  John spoke a bit about the success of the program of the years, the expectations of a vExpert, and the future of the program.  In addition, we were treated to some great information about both current and future products.  I had to duck out early to get set up for v0dgeball.  Here's a few pics of the vExpert session:

As I was leaving for v0dgeball, the registration line had started to form.  While we know many who weren't able to make it out due to Hurricane Irene, the line was still a couple hundred deep before registration even opened:

After that it was time for the highlight of Sunday, v0dgeball!  The event was a great success and we raised over $12,000 for the Wounded Warrior Project!  I ended up having to leave my team to serve as a referee for the night (buy me a beer sometime and ask me what I thought of that!) but it really was just crazy fun!  Here's some pics:

It was an amazing first day and VMworld hasn't even begun!  It's going to be a great week!

Summary of All Things VCE at VMworld

This will be a short post tonight.  I wrote a guest blog article for VMworld listing all of VCE's activities this year on Cisco Data Center blog.  If you are interested in everything VCE is up too, check it out!

The #vHunt at VMworld is ON!

A number of EMC folks have already posted about this including Chad, vTexan, Bas, and Matt.  EMC and a few partners including VCE will be hosting a #vHunt at VMworld this year.  To borrow from Bas's blog, the rules are simple:

So, what’s the deal? Simple, follow these steps and see if you win:

• Members of the EMC vSpecialist and VCE teams will be tweeting various tasks and challenges throughout VMworld. Day and Night, on the floor, in the labs, in the sessions, at the parties, etc. You can identify those tasks and challenges by looking for the vHunt hashtag “#vHunt” in our tweets. You will find all kinds of things there, facts, trivia or fun challenges.
• Every time you respond to one of those challenges or tasks, tag it with “#vHunt. Someone from EMC will be watching those responses.
• During the convention (Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, 3x a day, our marketing folks pick winners based on the criteria above, and hand the winners their prize.

That’s all there is to it!  I have a few things in mind already.

In case you're wondering, I'll be pretty easy to find.  I'll either be in the VCE Booth (#1121) or in the Blogger's Lounge.  I won't be attending sessions this year so stop by and say hello!

VCE TweetUp at VMworld

This is just a quick post to let everyone know that VCE (my company) will be hosting a TweetUp at VMworld.  If anybody has questions about VCE or the Vblock Platform, stop by and say hello!  Here's a link to register.

Where: Double Helix Wine & Whiskey Bar @ Palazzo
When: Tuesday 8/30 @ 5:30

(Stop by and wish me a happy 14 years of marriage)

VCE & VMware's AlwaysOn Desktop Solution at VMworld

I get to share something really cool with everyone today!  Welcome to the next generation of VDI.  At VMworld next week VCE and & VMware will highlight a joint solution we call AlwaysOn Desktop.  Stop by VCE's Booth (#1121) to see a live demonstration.

What is AlwaysOn Desktop you ask?

VCE and VMware took a standard VDI solution and "cranked it up":

• Always On, Fast Logon
• VDI Desktop Follows the User ("Follow Me Desktops")
• Any Device
• Quickly Provision Desktops
• Easy to Manage
• Highly Available

Think of it like this: VCE along with our partners on this solution have created a desktop solution that allows a user to access their desktop from any VDI station through their access card using Imprivata's Single Sign On product.  Your desktop will now quickly and easily follow you around.  This solution was developed in our Raleigh Solutions Lab and it is soooooo cool.  Walk up to one station, hold up your card, get your desktop.  Walk up to another station, hold up your card, and you're disconnected from the previous station and switched to the new station within seconds.  It is awesome!

The solution involves Imprivata’s Single Sign On (OneSign®), Cisco’s load balancer (ACE), and VMware View – all running on a replicated Vblock™ infrastructure.  That's right, replicated.  The Demonstration for VMworld will be for the Healthcare Industry, we're calling it AlwaysOn Point of Care.  But, this can easily be adapted to ANY industry that requires Highly Available VDI.

Here's a high level look at the architecture:

In the upcoming weeks VCE will publicly publish more on AlwaysOn, until then stop by the VCE Booth (#1121) and talk to the folks who designed the solution!

Let's Talk about Cisco UC on Vblock at VMworld!

For a good portion of VMworld this year I have the distinct privilege of hosting customers in the VCE Booth (#1121).  We have many great things to discuss this year that I will be highlighting over the next few days leading up to VMworld.

Today, I want to discuss a solution near and dear to my heart.  My team has been working closely with Cisco to bring Cisco Unified Communications (UC) as an integrated solution to the Vblock platform.

What has VCE accomplished to date for Cisco UC?
Through VCE and Cisco's collaboration, we have introduced Unified Communications Blade Packs specific to the Vblock platform.  If you are familiar with UC, you will understand the concept of Cisco's Tested Reference Configurations.  Basically, it is a hardware standard that the Cisco UC team has fully tested and Cisco will support.  Cisco and VCE jointly support the B200 M2 TRC#1 and TRC#2 configurations.  In addition, EMC's PowerPath/VE and the Cisco 1000v now come standard with every UC blade pack to better support co-residency with other applications inside a Vblock (but on different hardware blades).  If you have any questions, find me at VMworld and we'll discuss the "nitty gritty" details.

Why has VCE introduced the Cisco UC Blade Packs?
They say a picture is worth a thousand words.  The following table is taken from the design considerations page on Cisco's UC website.  We want to make the infrastructure "go away".  By running UC on Vblock, you can focus on the UC design and not worry about all the "stuff underneath".  All components of the Vblock are supported by VCE & Cisco will handle the UC application.  It couldn't be easier!

What about UC's newly announced specs-based support?
In June of this year Cisco introduced the concept of specs-based support for UC.  Long term this will remove the hardware dependence of the Tested Reference Configurations.  VCE and Cisco are working closely on a fully supported and documented solution for this architecture as well.  Specs-based UC on Vblock will work today but it is up to the customer or partner to design the architecture.

In conclusion, it's an exciting time for Cisco UC on Vblock!  Stop by VCE's Booth 1121 and let's talk about it!