Was surprised to hear that the date for this years VMworld Europe event has changed. Back in San Francisco the boards were saying October 16-18th. The location remains the same – Barcelona – but the event is now due to happen the week before from the 9-11th October. So time to update your calender..
I first found this out from http://www.vmguru.nl – and I’m rather liking his photo!
Good news! The Toronto VMUG has its announced its date for its User Conferrence – it’s on the 7th Feb to be held at:
8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Hyatt Regency Toronto
370 King Street West,
Toronto, Ontario M5V 1J9
Agenda has yet to be set but I will be speaking – mostly a key note… Click at the big image above to register and keep an eye on the event as the agenda is worked on…
Last week I was in sunny Australia in the cities of Brisbane and Melbourne (pronounced Bris-bun and Mel-bun incidentally…) Fun was had by all – I was there with none other than virtualization luminary Scott Lowe. I managed to bump into Scott whilst at London Heathrow so we got a chance over the week to shoot the breeze about this ‘n’ that.
A couple of things came to me whilst I was away. Scott was presenting on the pros/cons of VMware HA “Stretched Clusters” and VMware Site Recovery Manager. I’ve seen him deliver on this topic throughout the year, and its been interesting to see how this presentation has developed and subtly changed throughout the year. It probably shows as much how Scott’s thinking has evolved of the year – about the advantages and disadvantages of both technologies – but also how if you do find yourself doing a similar presentation from one month to another you need to mix it up just for yourself – to keep it interesting. It was nice to see someone other than me, pimping VMware SRM for change! 
As for me I’ve been hawking an SRM5 “Futures” deck for most of this year. That became a “What’s New” in SRM 5.0 on the day of the GA. The back end of the PowerPoint still has some futures stuff in the preso – about stuff coming down the pipe in 2012/2013. Some of that became more “concrete” to me in a recent roadmap/NDA session I did with guys at VMware at Frimley, UK. Anyway, informally I suggested to Scott that we do a VMworld 2012 session together on Stretched Clusters Vs SRM. With me taking the pro-stance on Stretched Clusters, and him taking the pro-stance on SRM (again mixing it up to keep it interesting – because everyone would expect me to be the pro-SRM guy!) He seems interested, so lets hope that happens. Can’t see why the content team would turn down two “legends” on one stage…
As for the Oz VMUGs the personal highlight for me was the breakout session on ThinApp Factory at the Melbourne VMUG. There was surprisingly little information about the product (which is currently just in Alpha) at VMworld. So I had high expectations for the session, and I wasn’t disappointed. Plenty of information and screen grabs, and it was a proper VMware deck, so it looks like the collateral is already in place to position & explain the technology. It hit a note for me because for the last couple of months I’ve been working on a new View5.0/ThinApp4.7 book with Barry Combs of virtualisedreality.com fame. The back of the book has a “futures” section that covers stuff like VMware Horizon, ThinApp Factory, Octupus, SocialCast, AppBlast and SlideRocket. Of course, much of the information is a bit thin on the ground. Horizon isn’t available outside of US boards because of export restrictions – and things like ThinApp Factory or AppBlast aren’t even in beta yet. So it was really nice to see a presentation that put more meat & potatoes around the subject rather than emphasizing the all important business advantages/challenges or overly focusing on the end-consummer experience (pretty picture screen grabs).
The main idea I got from this session wasn’t so much technical. It was concept or analogy. I’ve got a couple of buddies who work in RF Comms area who have both been on the R&D side, and go-to-market process. One thing they have always stressed to me in their work is that no amount of technological innovation at the bench, is worth a cent unless it can be mass-produced with factory style economies of scale. So that started me thinking about if ThinApp has a “factory” what processes (both business and technical) must have take place FIRST, before you can undergo a “mass production” of ThinApps. There’s a couple of analogies around there too – where application packaging process becomes a “sausage machine” or “meat factory” or a “cookie-cutter” process. So what were trying to achieve with ThinApp Factory is move a way from a bespoke, craftsman like approach to producing each ThinApp. Where each ThinApp is lovingly carved and created by hand. But to a process where an install .EXE goes in one side, and ThinApps come out the other side.
Of course, that’s quite idealistic. Any “production” process will have a % of error – and people who develop the product and manage factories have to make sure that the product that’s been manufactured is so well designed that it lends itself to such a mass processes. That’s hardly the case with a generic .MSI file. SO going forward I’m beginning to see how ThinApp Factory will be used to create ThinApp for the vast bulk of applications that respond favourably to sausage machine approach, the trick will be quickly identifying applications that need to be pulled off the conveyer belt and handled in the Old Skool way. That’s where service providers and packaging teams will continue to add-value…
Da When:
Thursday, 26 January 2012 Time: 10:00 – 17:15
Da Where:
London Chamber of Commerce and Industry
33 Queen Street
London, EC4R 1AP
Directions
Da Beers!
Time: 17:15
Pavilion End,
23 Watling Street, EC4M 9BR
Directions
Before I begin a big thank you to all the sponsors of this years SwagBag…
A particular thanks goes to the Dell Equallogic team who brought over a huge cooler bag of goodies!
…AND MANY MANY MORE!
Yesterday saw the first ever UK-wide VMware User Group Summit/Conference. We kicked off the night before with a vBeers and vCurry at the event location – The National Motorcycle Museum.
The next day we kicked off with the event itself.
The 1st of December see’s the Scottish VMUG meet yet again. It kicks of here:
13:00 – 17:00
The Scotsman Hotel – Russell Suite
20 North Bridge, EH1 1TR
Edinburgh, Scotland…
They have their agenda up – which includes my good friend Cormac Hogan. If you think VMUGs are all about “vendor pitches” – think again. This guy will technically rock-your-world.
Here’s the agenda:
It’s my pleasure to pass on the news that the Melbourne VMUG User summit is now open for registrations. The event will be held at Melbourne Park Function Centre, Batman Ave, Melbourne, Australia 3001. It kicks off at 8am and finishes up at 5.30pm. Hopefully there will be some informal vBeers event the night before or after…
The event will have multiple tracks, VMware Sessions, a Solutions Exchange – and guest speakers including the great Scott Lowe, and some interloper called Mike Laverick…
I’m sure a more complete agenda will follow shortly – but for now register your interest over here.
There’s just two weeks to go until the first ever UK VMUG Conference. I will be there too, and like last year I’ve kept my second VMworld bag. It’s packed full of goodies from various vendors hence the name swagbag. By far the biggest donor this year were the guys from Dell Equalogic who brought cooler bag of goodies across from the US. So it will take some serious “consolidation” to get all off this stuff into the bag.
To win you must attend the UK VMUG User Conference. It’s on the 3rd Nov, 2011 (Thursday) and runs from 8am to 5pm at National Motorcycle Museum, Coventry Rd, Bickenhill, Sollihull. B92 QEJ.
I hope to be around the registration area with book of raffle tickets for folks to buy. All money raised goes to UNICEF.
Now all I have to do is work out how much each ticket will be…
Good news. Organization of the 1st ever UK VMUG User Conference/Summit is progressing and they now have agenda up!
Here’s the highlights:
Keynote: Joe Baguley – VMware Chief Cloud Technologist
I met Joe briefly when he was at Quest. Picked up some interesting view points from him, which influenced my writing this year…
Community Session: Duncan Epping/Frank Denneman – vSphere 5.0 Clustering Q&A
The dynamic duo make their first (I believe) presentation to a UK User Group. I’m sure this will be well attended.
Community Session: Cormac Hogan vSphere 5.0 New Storage Features
I’ve met Cormac a couple of times – at the ye old TSX in Europe and event I tried to launch in Ireland. This guy is very technical and I remember his top 10 storage issue went straight into my courses when I was a VMware Instructor.
Community Session: Julian Wood vSphere 4->5 upgrade
A shout out for a buddy of mine from the London UG. Julian runs the http://www.wooditwork.com/ blog.
The community sessions run twice so you will have to think about what you are really interested in because you won’t be able to see ALL of them…
As for me I’m in the “graveyard slot” at the end of the event. The theory is my star name power will stop folks drifting away at the end of the day. Personally, I think the chance of winning an IPAD from a vendor might be the bigger draw!!!
To register & see the agenda in full – toddle off here: http://www.myvmug.org/e/in/eid=106&source=5
If you want to add Mike Laverick on LinkedIn, click on this button:
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