New to VMware I had the chance to come out the week before VMworld and stay through Sunday
night. While I unfortunately could not stay for the main festivities I did get to see and
meet a lot of new people as well as browse the floor Sunday night for some of the new
technologies to be announced this week.
My experience as follows technically began the Sunday prior to VMworld where I arrived in
Palo Alto to visit headquarters for the first time. Over the course of the week I was
able to meet many of the public facing and behind the scenes people that have helped make
VMware what they are today. On Saturday and Sunday I was able to attend some internal
events that furthered the experience and allowed me to meet even more people. And then
Sunday night I was able to browse the floor at VMworld and check out some of the new
technologies that are soon to be released. In addition this gave me a great opportunity to
track down some of the people I couldn’t over the weekend, most of which were easy to find
as they were working a booth.
An event like VMworld is a rare opportunity to see some of the people you’ve either
interacted with through twitter/blogs, and in some cases past co-workers. I’ve been
fortunate to build a lot of relationships from blogging and participating in the community.
While I have only lived in two places during my working career, I have worked on several
global teams, remote from my colleagues. I can remember leaving one position about 5 years
ago where I was 100% remote assigned, and the day I left feeling like I’d never see these
people again in person. VMworld has allowed me to see many of these people again, and in
particular some last night from India, China, Israel, and those based in the United States
as well.
I’m going to leave it at that and will follow up with any more relevant information I see
from afar as the week goes on.
And if you somehow have not become familiar with 5.5…..
New Stuff in 5.5
There is a lot that you all know about by now, and if not read the What’s New paper below:
http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/vsphere/VMware-vSphere-Platform-Whats-New.pdf
I also encourage you to check out Chris Wahl’s stuff. He has a series of posts, below of
which relates to VSAN. Chris’s posts are typically deep technically but also with a sense of humor mixed in. A must follow.
http://wahlnetwork.com/2013/08/26/vsphere-5-5-improvements-part-4-virtual-san-vsan/