Today, I’d like to share a little trip report and my personal highlights from VMworld 2013 in San Francisco. Next stop: VMworld Barcelona!
10th annual VMworld Highlights
- 23,000 attendees in San Francisco
- more than 350 breakout sessions
- 30 hands on labs (most popular: NSX)
- more than 250 partners
Keynotes / General Sessions
- At the General Session on Monday CEO Pat Gelsinger laid the foundation for the IT industry with three imperatives:
- Virtualization extends across the data center
- Management gives way to automation
- The hybrid cloud becomes ubiquitous
- Video Recap
VMworld TV
- Highlights
- Day 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eg0K914SnqM
- Day 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvM7ZtDtzYs
- Day 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eZ4Ti36ji4
- Wrap-Up of VMworld US: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sr9PZlyJ38Q
- Behind the Scenes
- Keynotes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZBr5ajpKpo
- Day 2 Keynote: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQiK3mZbKyg
- Behind the Scenes with the Tech Team: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=291gwFloQc8
My personal list of VMworld’s most interesting announcements:
- Press Releases
- VMware Unveils Next-Generation Products and Services to Further Enable the Software-Defined Data Center (http://www.vmware.com/company/news/releases/vmw-vmworld-sddc-082613.html)
- VMware Delivers vCloud Hybrid Service (http://www.vmware.com/company/news/releases/vmw-vmworld-vchs-ga-082613.html)
- VMware Further Simplifies IT Support for the Mobile Workforce with New Capabilities and Partnerships for VMware Horizon Suite (http://www.vmware.com/company/news/releases/vmw-horizon–082713.html)
- VMware Cloud Management Helps Drive Adoption of Software-Defined Data Center Architecture (http://www.vmware.com/company/news/releases/vmw-management-082713.html)
- VSAN is a new software-defined storage tier, pools compute and direct-attached storage resources and clusters server disks and flash to create resilient shared storage (http://www.vmware.com/products/virtual-san/)
- Beta Program: http://www.vmware.com/vsan-beta-register.html
- VMware’s vision for Software-Defined Storage: http://cto.vmware.com/vmwares-strategy-for-software-defined-storage
- vCloud Hybrid Service is built on vSphere, quickly and seamlessly extends your data center into the cloud using the tools and processes you already have (http://www.vmware.com/products/vcloud-hybrid-service/)
- now available to customers in the US
- Services include Direct Connect, Disaster Recovery as a Service, Cloud Foundry Platform as a Service, VMware Horizon View Desktop-as-a-Service
- VMware NSX is the network virtualization platform that delivers the operational model of a VM for the network to transform data center operations and economics (http://www.vmware.com/products/nsx/)
- Session NET5847- NSX: Introducing the World to VMware NSX http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHVm69YoKRs
- Interview with Martin Casado (CTO Networking): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMRavhPUvI4
- Introducing VMware NSX – The Platform for Network Virtualization: http://cto.vmware.com/introducing-vmware-nsx-the-platform-for-network-virtualization/
- vSphere 5.5 (http://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere-operations-management/)
- What’s New Whitepaper: http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/vsphere/VMware-vSphere-Platform-Whats-New.pdf
- AppHA: High Availability for applications inside the VM
- Single-Sign On enhancements
- Scalability enhancements: e.g. 62TB VMDK support
- vCenter Virtual Appliance (VCVA) now supports up to 500 hosts and 5000 VMs with integrated vPostgres Database
- vSphere Data Protection: restore procedure now independent from vCenter
- vSphere Replication: Multi-Point-in-Time (MPIT) Snapshot Retention
- Introduction of vSphere Flash Read Cache to make use of local SSDs by turning them into a new layer of cache for VMs (http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2013/08/26/introduction-to-vsphere-flash-read-cache-aka-vflash/)
- Introduction of vSphere Big Data Extensions
- vCenter Orchestrator 5.5 enhancements: Resume workflow on failure, Workflow debugger, vCO High availability (active/active and active/passive): http://www.vcoteam.info/newsflash/vmware-released-vcenter-orchestrator-55.html
- vCloud Suite 5.5 lets you build and run a vSphere-based private cloud that delivers cloud service provider economics at scale, application provisioning in minutes, and automated operations management (http://www.vmware.com/products/vcloud-suite)
- vCenter Log Insight delivers automated log management through aggregation, analytics and search, enabling operational intelligence and enterprise-wide visibility in dynamic hybrid cloud environments. (http://www.vmware.com/products/vcenter-log-insight/)
- 5 free licenses for all VMworld participants that follow https://twitter.com/VMLogInsight on Twitter: http://info.vmware.com/content/23713_VMworld_LogInsight?src=&xyz=&cid=
- Meet the team behind vCenter Log Insight: http://youtu.be/1vUbmcTal8
- Session VCM7369-S – Uncovering the Hidden Truth in Log Data http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4rW2Of2oss
- VMware Walkthroughs provide a new, demo-oriented website to show product capabilities in more detail. They can be accessed via http://vmwarewalkthroughs.com/vCloudSuite5-5/
- VMware – the Future of IT (incl. VMware Time Machine): http://vmfutureit.com
- New Fling: ProactiveDRS is a way for DRS to react to changes in the virtual cluster, and to act on predicted changes in resource demands before hosts become stressed: http://labs.vmware.com/flings/proactive-drs