VMworld

Coho Data Giving Away a VMworld US 2014 Pass

by

If you’re trying to get to VMworld US and want a free pass, a number of vendors are giving them away, including my friends over at Coho Data: We are giving away a FULL conference pass to VMworld 2014 to one lucky winner along with a few goodies to others as well. Register for a chance to win: One Full-Conference Pass to VMworld 2014 in San Francisco* “Don’t FSCK with the Fish” T-Shirt Coho Data Chrome Industries Backpack *The prize includes the conference pass only. The winner will be responsible for their own hotel, airfare, and other expenses. Pass valued at $1,995 USD. Winner will be announced on August 1st via email, so register for a chance to win! A great deal especially if …

Read More

VMworld 2014 Session Voting Open

by

One of the most interesting things about VMworld is the public session voting, which is now open. Not many conferences allow attendees to have a say in what gets presented at the conference. If you’re planning to attend VMworld 2014 it’s probably a good idea to vote for sessions that interest you. I am involved in two session proposals: 2770 – The Art of Migrating to the vCenter Server Appliance As the vCenter Server Appliance gains maturity, capacity, and functionality it is becoming a serious choice for those running vSphere environments, reducing expense and administration time. This session will be based in first-hand migration experienced and cover what the vCSA is, common use cases and designs, and where the vCSA isn’t …

Read More

VMworld US 2012: Day Two

by

Day two for me (Monday) was spent running around the Solutions Exchange, talking to vendors. The keynote was excellent, and it was nice to hear that my Enterprise Plus licenses are becoming vCloud Suite Standard licenses. vRAM is dead, too, which is nice. Didn’t make it to any sessions, but that’s okay. That’s what the other days are for! The vExpert meeting was excellent, and I appreciate the appreciation everybody has shown for my work. Thanks folks. The evening was spent checking out CloudPhysics and talking with some extremely awesome startups & VCs. Serious stuff but fun, and I owe Frank Denneman a big thank you for including me (thanks dude). I followed that with the #vFlipCup tournament. I was …

Read More

VMworld US 2012: Day One

by

Day one was a weird day, roaming the city before the Solutions Exchange “Welcome Reception.” Was trying for breakfast at The Pork Store on Haight but ended up at Squat & Gobble, which was excellent. If you get time to go over there the Crab Cakes Florentine is tasty (that’s the plate photo below). Afterwards we walked down to the Ferry Terminal at the end of Market St. If you haven’t been in that building there are some great food vendors in there. There was also an America’s Cup boat heading down the bay. v0dgeball was successful, though I didn’t attend, instead getting an update from Mark Vaughn who was one of the referees. My understanding is that the Arista …

Read More

VMworld US 2012: Day Zero

by

Flew in around 3 PM, took the BART over to the hotel, checked in and headed out to Fisherman’s Wharf for some In-n-Out Burger action. Ended up at Rogue Ales, and were so enamored with their beer that we missed the #vBeers. By the time we were ready to head over many of the international & East Coast folks were heading to bed, so we diverted to 21st Amendment. Tasty beer there, too. At Rogue I’d suggest the Hazelnut Honey Brown Ale, at 21st Amendment the HQT which is an ancient Egyptian recipe. We also took a swing through a cocktail bar called Rickhouse, which looked very cool but we were in a mood for beer. That burger is a …

Read More

Tips for VMworld US 2012 & San Francisco

by

As VMworld US 2012 approaches rapidly I’ve been thinking about the things I like to do in San Francisco, and the useful things I have learned over the years. If you have thoughts here about things that I’ve missed or are wrong about please add them in the comments! Transportation: From SFO I usually take the Bay Area Rapid Transit, or BART, to the Powell St. station. It’s cheap at $8.25 a person and relatively fast, though you’ll have to hoof it from the station to your hotel then. If you have more than one person a cab might be okay, but expect the ride to cost $50-$60. Shuttles are also a cost-effective way to travel, $17ish from SFO to …

Read More

3 Reasons These VMware vTax & Licensing Rumors Are Great

by

“What is the difference between a taxidermist and a tax collector? The taxidermist takes only your skin.” – Mark Twain I have to say that, if they’re true, I’ve got three reasons to be happy about the VMware licensing rumors that CRN is leaking. First, you may remember from the vSphere 5 launch that I was one of the folks pointing out that due to the fact that you can pool your vRAM licensing it was likely to have little effect in the short term, and shouldn’t stop anybody from upgrading to vSphere 5. The pain would come in the medium-term for folks that practice the “fewer, bigger machines” approach to virtualization (a practice I promote). Thirteen months is definitely “medium-term” …

Read More

How To Power Your Stuff While You're in Copenhagen

by

Denmark’s power is 230 Volts and 50 Hz, which means that if you are traveling from a country with another power specification (like the United States, at 110 Volts and 60 Hz) you have some considerations to make. Last year when I was there for the VMworld conference I had my Dell laptop, my iPad, my iPhone, and my Nikon D80 digital SLR camera. I left my electric razor at home; devices with motors in them need step-down transformers so they don’t catch fire. Step-down transformers are heavy and annoying and have fuses that blow. I can shave with a disposable razor for a week, no big deal. I planned to charge my iPhone off my laptop’s USB, thereby saving …

Read More

Tips for VMworld US 2011 & Las Vegas

by

As VMworld US 2011 approaches I’ve been thinking about the things I’ve learned about traveling to & in Las Vegas, and things that I wish I’d been told the first time I went to VMworld. You folks probably also have a bunch of good ideas that I’ll miss, please add them in the comments! Transportation: There are multiple ways for a cab to get to your hotel, but the Interstate 215 tunnel is NOT the shortest way. Ever. That’s a classic cab scam and will result in a 30 minute cab ride, when the Strip is 10 minutes away. Explicitly ask to go to your hotel via Tropicana Avenue. Traffic on Las Vegas Boulevard (“the Strip”) at night is insane, …

Read More

VMworld 2010: Hands-On Labs

by

This morning John Troyer coordinated a bunch of bloggers for a session over at the VMworld 2010 Hands-On Lab facilities in Moscone West. Adam Zimman, Dan Anderson, and Curtis Pope took turns explaining and demoing the lab to us. The lab itself was built as a cloud-oriented system, using software-on-demand and service-on-demand principles, and relying heavily on remotely-hosted equipment in data centers in Miami, FL (Terremark) and Ashburn, VA (Verizon). The Lab team is really building on what they’ve learned from other years. There are many more labs this year than last, and they’re all self-paced, though there are options for instructor interaction as well if you have questions or want more one-on-one guidance. Self-paced labs means they can do …

Read More

+ More Posts +