VMworld Highlights, Day 2

The crowd was much more sparse than yesterday's; it's a shame, because the keynote was much better than Maritz'.

VMware is trying hard to save money on food. For the second day, the pre-keynote breakfast was danish and fruit. Not a big deal, but no eggs, no pancakes, no bacon? And exactly the same as yesterday's menu? It's like staying at a Super 8 motel -- and no, that's not a compliment.

Some very cool uses of VMotion are available now, and in the coming months. VMotion is VMware's technology to move VMs from one server to another with no downtime, no disruption to the VM or the network. VMotion for power usage, for example moves VMs around to reduce power to servers -- for instance, if there are a few VMs on a server, they may be moved to another server so the original server, or parts of it, can be shut down to conserve power. Initial reports, according to VMware, are showing up to 20 percent power savings.

Another important, upcoming product announced is vCenter Configuration Control. This management tool analyzes changes to a network or application, letting administrators more quickly pinpoint the source of a problem. In the demo, a problem was caused by a change in a VLAN setting. Using Config Control, the issue was located in moments, rather than having to dig through a server or network in a process that could take hours or longer. It's expected to be released in the first half of next year, Herrod said.

There's a concert by the '80s supergroup Foreigner tonight. Too bad for me -- I hate Foreigner.

Some are whispering that attendance is closer to 11,000, not the nearly 13,000 Maritz announced yesterday. The venue is smaller than last year's show at Las Vegas, making it hard to tell. But it seems packed to me.

Posted by Keith Ward on 09/02/2009 at 12:48 PM