Take Five With Tom Fenton
Must-See Sessions at VMworld 2018
Here's what Tom plans to attend for this year's VMware event in Las Vegas.
Every year around this time in the weeks leading up to VMworld, I come up with a list of sessions that excite me and are on my must-see list for the conference, and this year is shaping up to be another great year. As has usually been the case, my interest falls more within new technology, which I plan to fully dive into this year. Following are five sessions that I plan to attend at VMworld 2018.
SESSION 1
10 Top Troubleshooting Issues for Horizon [EDU7515U]. Joe Cooper, a longtime VMware trainer, has put this session on for many years; every year he manages to get great new content, do an outstanding job of presenting the material and leave the audience satisfied. This session books up quick, so make sure to add it to your schedule early or you'll end up being on the waiting list.
SESSION 2
Accelerate Your Hybrid Cloud with VMware Cloud on AWS: What's New [HYP1376BU]. AWS is going to be one of the hot topics this year at VMworld, and while many sessions from the bevy of those being offered look informative, I chose this one specifically because it's being presented by two of the VMware employees who are shaping the future of VMWare on AWS: Sai Gopalan and Narayan Bharadwaj.
SESSION 3
Hybrid Cloud Architecture Design and Best Practices for VMware Cloud on AWS [HYP2145BUS]. If Session 2 presents VMware's vision of VMware and AWS, this one should present the vision of AWS from its own point of view. One of the presenters, Wen Yu, should have some unique insight because he was a valuable member of VMware for quite some time before going over to AWS; furthermore, his co-presenter, Aarthi Raju, is a longtime AWSer. This should be an excellent session.
SESSION 4
Documenting Your Virtual Infrastructure with PowerShell and PowerCLI [VIN3327BU]. Admittedly, I'm sitting in on this session purely for selfish reasons. I'm constantly updating my home lab and thinking that I should (though I never actually) document my lab topography. Hopefully this session will give me some tools to automate my lab layout.
SESSION 5
NVMe for Beginners [VMTN5521U]. I have a pretty good handle on NVMe devices, but because NVMe technology is always evolving quickly, staying on top of the latest updates is a never-ending mission. I hope this session not only covers NVMe basics, but also delves into its latest trends.
BONUS SESSION
Ensure Maximum Uptime and Performance of Your vCenter Server Appliance [VIN1293BU]. Although you can't prevent all the issues that can affect the uptime and performance of your vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA), in this session I'll discuss how you can monitor your system to stop preventable issues. For a preview of what I'll be presenting, see my articles on the topic here and here.
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.