Know before you go! VMworld 2020

VMworld 2020 has finally arrived. The general session and keynotes kick-off today, September 29. This years event is completely virtual and online. There will be a lot of areas to focus in on, like app modernization, multi-cloud, virtual cloud network, digital workspace, intrinsic security and telco.

Know before you go (Virtually)

Here is some advice and things to look out for this VMworld 2020!

• Make sure that you put your out of office on so that you can reduce those pesky distractions. 
• Not all courses will be available after the event. Only pre-recorded courses will be so if you run into a connection issue during a session, make sure that you ask the presenter to repeat. 
• You can watch some really great LIVE interviews on the CUBE.
  • Pat Gelsinger, CEO
  • Sanjay Poonen, COO
  • Krish Prasad, VP Cloud
  • Sumit Dhawan, Chief Customer Officer
• Meet up with Purestorage
• Be sure to follow the twitter feed, @VMworld and #VMworld
•  Don't forget about the Facebook Page​
• Check out Veeam at VMworld, https://www.veeam.com/vmworld
• VMworld 2020 Parties, Chats, SWAG/Gifts, https://www.virtualisedfruit.co.uk/vmworld-2020-parties-chats-swag-gifts/
• Don’t forget John Legend, https://www.vmworld.com/en/Engage/activities.htm​
• VMware has also announced a VMworld 2020 backpack, it’s limited edition though, so keep an eye on their Social Media for how to get one:
  • bit.ly/30eErSO

Virtual Event

Everyone knows that due to covid this event like all others will be held online. The premier pass for VMworld 2020 has sold out, but you can still sign-up for the free general pass. There are a lot of sponsors this year including, Dell Technologies, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Microsoft, and IBM.

The content catalog has been live for some time now but once you are registered and schedule your sessions you can then go into the "My Calendar" section and download the calendar to your desktop as a way of reminding you. You can also download the VMworld 2020 app to your phone. This servers as a great way to stay connected and find peers. 

Predictions

I am predicting that there will be a lot of announcements and focus around three key areas for VMware this year. 

1. VMware Cloud Foundations
2. App Modernization with Tanzu
3. Intrinsic Security

VMware Cloud Foundations

VMware has built the modernized and unified platform for building cloud platform for managing VMs and orchestrating containers, built on full-stack hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) technology. A single architecture that is easy to deploy, VMware Cloud Foundation enables consistent, secure infrastructure and operations across private and public cloud. Increase enterprise agility and flexibility with the hybrid cloud that delivers it all.

We are seeing this offering continue to expand past the initial inception of on-premise environments and  VMware Cloud on AWS (VMCoAWS). Now we are seeing this ever growing and expanding technology being deployed inside Microsoft Azure, Google, and also with Dell Technologies around their offering for Dell Technologies Cloud Platform (DTCP). ​

App Modernization

VMware knows that not all workloads are equal and require different strategies to fit the need. This is where VMware Tanzu comes in. VMware Tanzu is a suite of products and solutions that allow customers to Build, Run, and Manage Kubernetes container-based applications. 

Intrinsic Security

VMware has a focus on embedding security into their products and has developed a strategy for leveraging infrastructure and control in real time—across any app, cloud, or device so that you can shift from a reactive security posture (chasing bad) to a position of strength. At its core, intrinsic security is built-in, unified, and context-centric.

Intrinsic Security is comprised of several products to date. 

I hope that everyone has a great VMworld this year. For myself I am a bit saddened by the lack of human interaction and face-to-face time but this offers new ways to connect and learn from home.