Take Five With Tom Fenton
5 Must-Attend Dell Technologies World 2018 Sessions
Because this conference covers such a wide array of subjects, I'm going for breadth and not depth in this list.
Dell Technologies World 2018 in Las Vegas is just around the corner (April 30 to May 4), and with Dell expecting to have more than 12,000 attendees this year, it's important to figure out what sessions you'd like to attend sooner rather than later. Out of the extensive list of 400 sessions to choose from, I thought I'd sift through them and save you some time by giving you five of my must-attend sessions. As a fair warning, this list may seem a little disjointed, but because this conference covers such a wide array of subjects, I'm going for breadth and not depth in this list. I am trying to expose myself to some new technologies, as well as catch up on some proven technologies that I haven't been keeping up with to the extent that I should have.
TAKE 1
NVMe, NVMe Over Fabrics & Storage Class Memory Developments.I've been bullish on NVMe for the past couple years. However, the price of NVMe devices has plummeted and the uses for it have increased dramatically over the last year. I see this session as a good overview of the technology and a primer for two of the most exciting developments in NVMe: using storage class memory (SCM) and presenting NVME remotely.
TAKE 2
Dell IT: A Journey To CaaS; from Pilot To Production. Containers as a service (CaaS) is one of the more interesting strategies in the datacenter. SUSE and Canonical have software CaaS offerings, and Diamanti has a CaaS appliance. It will be interesting in this session to find out how Dell IT delivered its CaaS.
TAKE 3
Isilon: What's New in 2018 & Future Directions.Isilon is one of the giants for scale-out network-attached storage (NAS), and I'll be fascinated to discover what Dell has in mind for Isilon. As a side note, there are a few hands-on labs built around Isilon that I'll be trying to attend.
TAKE 4
VMware Cloud on AWS: A Seamlessly Integrated Hybrid Cloud Service. Dell Technologies World encompasses all the major components that make up the Dell technologies family, including VMware, which has chosen to partner with the major cloud providers. I am especially interested in this presentation to see how AWS and VMware integrate with each other.
TAKE 5
Zero To Virtual Desktops in the Shortest Time Possible: Simplifying & Securing VDI Deployments with VMware-Powered Dell EMC Hyper-Converged Solutions. I think that this session wins the prize for the longest name in the catalog, but I chose it because it covers a lot of ground: VMware, end-user computing (EUC), hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI), and Dell servers. In this session, I hope to see how the synergy of the Dell/EMC/VMware merger has manifested itself.
Final Thoughts
Like I mentioned earlier, I'm trying to expose myself to a breadth of topics this year and I think that my mishmash list of sessions proves it. These sessions will be a good blend of some deep dives on subjects that I know about, as well as others that expose me to some subjects that are new to me but intrigue me nonetheless. Popular sessions will fill up fast, and the Agenda Scheduler doesn't allow you to reserve a slot; it will be first-come, first-seated. Be sure to review the entire Dell Technologies World 2018 catalog.
About the Author
Tom Fenton has a wealth of hands-on IT experience gained over the past 30 years in a variety of technologies, with the past 20 years focusing on virtualization and storage. He currently works as a Technical Marketing Manager for ControlUp. He previously worked at VMware in Staff and Senior level positions. He has also worked as a Senior Validation Engineer with The Taneja Group, where he headed the Validation Service Lab and was instrumental in starting up its vSphere Virtual Volumes practice. He's on X @vDoppler.