VMworld 2014 Roundup: Day 2

Monday's when VMworld really kicks into gear. Starting with the first general session and the kick-off of the week's worth of sessions, panel discussions and other activities. Let's get right to the Roundup Rundown:

General Session

While not the finally tally, it was interesting to hear that there are an estimated 22,000 attendees this year. Should this bear out via the final count, that means there were close to, or slightly less than, the number of attendees last year. I idly wonder if this means that VMworld has reached critical mass as far as attendance goes. Some have speculated that we could be experiencing the peak of technology conferences as we know it and that the conference experience will simply be beamed into people's homes and offices, and not have people geographically congregate. I think that a real stretch, especially with the VMworld crowd. The pulls of community, not to mention the old adage "a change can be as good as a break" (meaning for some this is almost a working vacay) means to me that this conference is not going anywhere anytime soon.

It was nice to hear the VMUG shout out and recognition that VMUG membership has reached 100,000 across 50 countries globally. Well done VMUG crew, both the Chicago based head office and all the VMUG leaders and attendees that, in effect, are VMUG.

Interesting to note that, perhaps due some of VMware's announcements preceading VMworld, that vCloud Air and VVOLs were not first mentioned on stage with any fanfare. In fact they were mentioned extremely casually, which I thought was a little unusual. It was almost as if to say, "these are no big deal, just evolutionary improvements". Which, in a fashion is true, however it's a bit of a surprise that the marketing machine wasn't cranked a little higher from the start. VMware's gotta eat, after all.

Liquid. Brave. Not sure what to say about the focus here. If you didn't catch the session, watch the video to decide for yourself.

Some more incremental improvements, such as vCloud Suite version 5.8 and VVOLs being announced as well as the formal announcement that vSphere 6.0 and VSAN 2.0 are in beta. Essentially confirming the versions that the publicly accessible betas will release as. Also another rebranding with VMware vRealize Suite.

EVO Rail and Rack are both interesting products. VMware's software and new software glue to help hardware partners shake 'n' bake their own "hyper-converged" solutions. This was another expected product, following on teh heals of Mystic and MARVIN. It'll be interesting to see how this progresses, however it's also interesting to note that the players in the hyper-converged infrastructure solution space didn't really blink (check the Twitters for reaction from Nutanix' big boss). All told, my favourite takeaway from this, and one of if not the biggest of the keynote, in my opinion, is VMware joining the Open Computer Project and contributing some of the EVO goodness back into OCP.

The graphic that was up showing all the various API layers on top of VMware's technology stack, including the newly announced OpenStack support was very interesting. I think we'll need to see some practical applications of how this may help large enterprise, especially in the complex case of requiring a mix of technologies that leverage multiple APIs from the same service. The use case is obvious for anyone invested in a particular API, however the multi-API is intriguing.

Coolest name for a project in a while, Project Fargo brings us containers. Expect to hear more specifics on this later in the week.

#VAPP1742 - Rapid Provisioning with Vagrant, vSphere and Puppet

My first "session" session of the week, this one demonstrated how Vagrant was being used to deploy VMs in vSphere and then call Puppet to configure them. This was accomplished via a Vagrant plugin that the presented developed. The "real-time" pre-recorded demos did impress, with the audience treated to a console view of the entire process start to finish in a matter of minutes. Audience questions prompted answers that suggest that the demo is specific to the environment it came from, though there's high hope that now that the plugin is "out in the open" on git that the community can help expand and improve it.

It was even speculated that with recent announcements including Vagrant Windows support, that this may be able to be extended to support Windows deployment. Should this be accomplished I think it was be very interesting times ahead for those who don't want to or can't justify dropping in System Center to manage the Windows gear (basically all small and "boutique" businesses).

#STO2996SPO - The vExpert Storage Game Show

Hands down the most fun all day. Team VMware vs. Team Pure Storage head to head in a storage showdown to the bitter end! There were wild accusations, questionable meat flavoured candies, x-ray specs and sound effects. They're running this again in Barcelona. That alone is reason enough to attend!

#BC02410 - BC/DR - Implementing a Holistic Strategy with VMware Solutions - Part 1 Business Overview

A lengthy session title to be sure. I was looking for this session to take the business side of business continuity and disaster recovery and then show how fit-for-purpose various VMware solutions are. Unfortunately it came off more like "marketecture" with the focus squarely on the products. The side effect being, of course, that when looked at product-first, any justifications presented look like "solutioneering", meaning a solution in search of a problem. Personally it didn't help that I was already familiar with most of the VMware products described. Part 2's supposed to look into the solutions in technical detail, and judging by the presenters I'm expecting a more satisfying experience there.

#SDC1176 - Ask the Expert vBloggers

This was runner-up as most fun/enjoyable session of the day. It certainly ended up being the most informative. The panel, made up of Duncan Epping, William Lam, Scott Lowe and Chad Sakac, shepherded by Rick Scherer fielded questions from the audience in 60-second (roughly, sometimes very roughly) responses. The panel was very honest, forthcoming and knowledgeable. Most of the questions were EVO related, what with it being introduced that morning, however there was a decent mix overall. For example one of the questions was, essentially, how do balance things (i.e. stop working) in order to enjoy life and not burn out. Great response from Duncan Epping there (buy your significant other lots of presents). The only complaint I could have with this session is that it was far too short. It is re-running later in the week so you can still add it to your schedule.

Nutanix - Want to Be Startin' Something

Nutanix's VMworld bash was this evening in a club near the Old Mint. There was food, drink, entertainment in the form of a Michael Jackson tribute band, and best of all good company. All the ingredients for a good party (substitute the band for X). Had a few good conversations, did some "community" and then turned in.

Goodbye Monday

In and around all of the sessions and events I've continued to meet people, some new, some met before, some in person for the first time. A quick call out to Noel and Eric at CloudCred, and Dan and Ravi, fellow CloudCred players. It was a pleasure meeting you all today!

A good start to the rest of the week. The conference is now pregnant with additional promise from today. I'm hoping for more interesting, as in technically deeper, insight from tomorrow's general session. Find out with me tomorrow.