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VMworld 2010 – Day 1
Hard to believe that VMworld has finally landed. Boy, has it been interesting. Both good and bad. Although, first day issues happen.
Sessions
The sessions have been very… well… interesting.
The content has been exciting to read about. However, I was only able to attend 1 of the 5 sessions I was aiming to attend. On the positive side, the session was THE one I wanted to see today.
The issue was the lines. Holy mother of (anyone)… the lines have been absolutely crazy. Seriously, picture the longest line you have ever seen… and double it 
. OK, that is probably quite an exaggeration, but that is what I felt. On 3 separate occasions, I stood in line and was rejected (wamp wamp wamp). The biggest issue with that is that I missed out on getting into another session. People are seriously waiting 45+ minutes in advance to get into the sessions. I have a hard time swallowing that pill. Plus, do this math:
- Sessions are 1 hour
- 30 minutes passing time to get to your next session
- 45 minute wait per session
- = by attending a session, you are about 15 minutes too late for the next one.
From what I have heard, the turnout for the today was actually unexpected. This is the first time VMworld has run on a Monday. From an attendance perspective, I think this is great. From an attendee perspective, very frustrating.
However, VMworld still has things to do… if you miss a session, there is still a lab you can attend (nice segue), right?!
Labs
Since I had plenty of free time today, I thought I should spend it doing some labs. (Look for a separate lab write-up soon). The turnout has been awesome. There have been a couple hiccups in network performance (meh… 480 labs… it may happen). But, the information I got out of the labs was incredible. Right now, I feel like I could spin up a wicked cool View / ThinApp environment. The guides and information have been incredible.
I feel like the number of workstations combined with the 1:30 limit per lab has created an excellent turnover… which ensures that people are always coming and going.
Plus… there was a Paul Martiz sighting in the labs too… picture to follow!
I hate to leave you hanging… but, I am going to address the specific labs I took in a little more detail later on.
Solution Exchange (aka – Run Around And Get Free Things time)
As usual, the opening of the solutions exchange was crazy.
I was number 2 or 3 to winning a Flip camera. Oh well… I did not feel the need to sprint anywhere while the guy that won was out of breath. Good for him.
The crowd was immense… which is awesome. However, it is difficult to get anywhere! Multiply that by the fact that I am not a petite guy, and it is a little more challenging.
However, I was able to have some meaningful conversations with vendors, which was awesome! I am looking forward to the Solution Exchange later this week for when I can actually meet the vendors and have more in depth discussions without having to worry about people scanning my badges, pushing papers and t-shirts into my hands, and bumping into people.
Today was a good day. Frustrating… but, it is VMworld… so, it has to be a good day.
Look for some lab details later on!
VMworld 2010 – Be there or be square (better believe I am a square)
So, with VMworld coming up (a mere 1 week away), I am really excited about everything going on.
The sessions, labs, announcements, and events going on are enough to make a virtual-geek like myself feel like Christmas Eve!
Last year was my first experience at VMworld and I loved every minute of it. However, I was rolling solo. I met some nice people while I was there, but that is about it. This year, though, I would like that to change… I want to meet a bunch of people and experience the event at a whole new level.
God willing, the following are the sessions I intend on attending while in SF:
Monday
| TA7743 | ESX iSCSI News, Configuration, and Best Practices |
| TA8595 | Virtual Network Concepts and Best Practices |
| TA8102 | Tuning Linux for Virtual Machines |
| DV7500 | VDI Assessment and Migration |
| DV7757 | VMware View Technical Overview |
Tuesday
| EA7850 | Design, Deploy, and Optimize Microsoft SQL 2008 |
| TA7962 | Modern Networking in a Virtualized Environment |
| TA7171 | Performance Best Practices for vSphere |
| DV7701 | Embracing Employee Owned Mobile Phones – The Why and How |
Wednesday
| TA6720 | Troubleshooting using ESXTOP for Advanced Users |
| EA6705 | Best Practices for Virtualizing Active Directory |
| EA7849 | Design, Deploy, and Optimize Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 on vSphere |
| DV7180 | ThinApp: What’s New and Future Vision |
| MA7528 | VMware vCenter Server: Operational Best Practices in the Datacenter |
| DV9540 | Case Study & Live Demo of View 4.x in an Enterprise Production Environment… |
Thursday
| EA7061 | Creating an Internal Oracle Database Cloud Using vSphere |
| ALT3003 | VMware vSphere Performance and Tuning |
| ALT3001 | VMware vCenter Site Recover Manager – Extended Config & Troubleshooting |
As far as labs are concerned, I would love to hit the following labs:
| Lab03 | ThinApp 4.6 |
| Lab08 | AppSpeed |
| Lab11 | SRM Installation and Config |
| Lab12 | SRM Extended Config and Troubleshooting |
| Lab24 | vSphere Performance and Tuning |
| Lab25 | vSphere Troubleshooting |
| Lab26 | vSphere PowerCLI |
| Lab30 | Sandbox |
Plus, I feel like VMware really has some awesome things up their sleeves. I am expecting the keynote on Tuesday to be awesome! Don’t let me down VMware!
While I am in SFO, you can get my updates via the Twitters (@arctic_99) and via the Blog – I should be easy to find. I’ll be the guy with his laptop posting updates online
Let me know if you’re going to be at VMworld and maybe we can high-5 between sessions!
