VMworld 2015 Live Blog: Day 3

I’m trying something a little different today, Tuesday, at VMworld. Stick with me as I take a crack at live blogging this morning’s keynote. It’s set to start in just a few minutes, so here we go…

Quick update: I had hoped to have these updated going out live but, well, #VMworldHappens. So trust me that I’ve blogged this live and posted the results at the end of the session.

General Session

Sanjay Poonen (@spoonen)

• The end user computing (EUC) mantra of Any App, Any Device reiterated, which builds on SDDC.
• Mobile is the new desktop.
• AirWatch is #1 as well as the fastest growing EMM.
• VMware Identity Management introduced to bring SSO and bridge apps and devices for end users.
• VMware has an app on their Workspace portal where 20k employees log in everyday. Comment: Sounds like they’ve been dog-fooding. I heartily approve.
• The Home Depot, South Hampton University, Delta Airlines, each use AirWatch and VMware Horizon to deliver services to their clients, whether they’re retail, students or travelers.
• Secure content locker in AirWatch allows updates to reach the Delta Airlines cabin and flight deck crew in a secure way. Comment: This is the epitome of critical. If this fails it could cost lives.
• Microsoft at a general session, wow! Jim Alkove comes out on stage.
• Discussing Windows 10, especially the mobility enhancements and enterprise mobile management capabilities.
• Comment: Folks have wondered if VMware Identity Management was challenging Microsoft Active Directory. I think this puts that to rest.
• MS’s goal is to make EMM easy for everyone from teachers to businesses.
• Speaking about Microsoft Sanjay says, “There’s overlap with our products, but it doesn’t matter.”
• Showing how Windows 10 is brought together with VMware tech.
• In Windows 10: “Settings > Accounts > Connect to work or school” and enter your email. With VMware on back end, setup is automatic, without any agents or software installed. Nice!
• Windows 10, whether laptop, desktop, tablet, what-have-you, is managed like a mobile device and is compatible with AirWatch.
• Comment: Knew this was coming, given Microsoft and AirWatch’ s recent announcements and latest feature set, but still great to see up on the big screen.
• AirWatch can be used to deploy apps to Windows 10 devices as well, just like mobile, using all of the features and efficiency of AirWatch including things like AppVolumes.
• Today’s announcement is project A² (that’s A squared) which combines AirWatch with AppVolumes.
• New AppConfig standard for integration. As an example we’re given an SSO demo of Salesforce being logged into on Android instantly with no pause for logon, as well as some apps on iPad.
• AirWatch is working with the top 50-100 apps to deliver AppConfig compatibility.
• Next Microsoft Surface is demo’d, with a CAD product using Nvidia graphics acceleration.
• AirWatch and Horizon are now tied seamlessly into NSX, advantages include leveraging micro-segmentation approach.
• “Sesame Street Simple”

Martin Casado (@martin_casado)

• “Did you notice Carl’s jacket yesterday? It’s kind of hard to beat.”
• The App is the Network.
• Challenges:
  • Provisioning and Configuration
  • Troubleshooting
  • Security
• NSX makes it easy for customers to move their workloads from private to public cloud easily. From Flintstones to Jetsons in less than 18 months.
• GSN (NZ company) has integrated NSX into their production operations. Comments: New Zealanders are typical a boundary pushing bunch, great to see!
• vRealize Operations Manager demo, showing all aspects of an app in the dashboard, including compute, networking and storage. Example shows the web tier having a problem, with the system in question highlighted by a red circle around it.
• New advanced services for security like network encryption.
• Has been challenging to implement due to the intricacies involved plus performance impacts.

Pat Gelsinger (@PGelsinger)

• Look back at where we’ve come from, where only 1.5% of people were on the Internet in 1995, to current day where your smartwatch buzzes and interrupts you constantly nearly everywhere you go.
• Points out that we’re continuing to experience disruption in business, where we have to adapt and change to keep up. Symmetric vs. asymmetric.
• Consider the future of the car: from individual ownership to shared, autonomous vehicles.
• Aside: VMware’s got some pretty talented marketing graphics folks.
• “Elephants must learn how to dance.”
• Pat proposes that we’re moving from an experimental cloud era to a professional cloud era, where private and public clouds are seamlessly bridged.
• VMware’s solution for the professional cloud era: Unified Hybrid Cloud, introduced yesterday.
• “Can’t my clouds just get along?”
• Emphasis (finally) on security. Comment: It was only a matter of time before we had to start addressing our security debt.
• Assertion that architected security can be twice as effective at half the cost. In VMware’s case, this hinges on NSX.
• We need to create building blocks of proactive technology.
• Automate everything and you can predict (almost) everything. Comment: 100% automation remains aspirational, but you’ll benefit greatly by reaching for this brass ring!
• On screen: VMworld 2016 US will be in Las Vegas. See you there!

Wrap Up

A much more news worthy general session this morning, with lots of interesting tech and compelling speakers. While we were presented with new or newly combined technical solutions, I’m pleased to see that the core message is consistently about delivering service to clients, whether internal staff or customers. As it should be.

If I’m feeling adventurous later, I’ll see if I can get actual live blogging up and working for the Thursday keynote. Thanks for turning in.