Notes From VMworld 2016, Day Two
Click here for notes from day one.
Day two of virtualization's biggest annual event has arrived. Here are some notes from the field.
- Unofficial attendance, according to several VMware PR staffers, is 23,000. That equals last year's attendance. The 2015 number was a record, so although no new record was set this year, attendance didn't drop, either. It still does show that the interest in virtualization hasn't diminished – a very good thing for VMware.
- It's often the small things in life that matter. I left my mouse at home, and it annoyed me all day Monday. I'm much more productive on my laptop with my mouse. Fortunately, the FedEx store in the hotel had them for sale. That's the last place I would've expected to find a mouse. It saves me from having to go a mile or two to get one. Again, a little thing, but life moves quickly at the show, and anything that speeds me up is gold.
- Media breakfasts that start at 7 a.m. are hard. Veeam sponsored the Tuesday morning breakfast, and it was enjoyable. Doug Hazelman, VP of Product Strategy, gave a comprehensive overview of new (and upcoming releases) from Veeam, and many questions were asked an answered. Still, that doesn't mean that 7 a.m. isn't early.
A few nuggets from the breakfast presentation: Veeam now has about 205,000 customers, and it's been around for 10 years. One of the more unusual aspects of that longevity is that Ratmir Timashev is still with the company he co-founded. Although he's stepped away from the day-to-day operations, he hasn't left for another feisty startup, as is so common in the industry.
Finally, new Veeam President and COO Peter McKay, formerly a VMware exec, mentioned that Veeam is going to start heavily targeting the enterprise market segment with its products. That should be interesting.
- To me, it felt like the Tuesday keynote had more energy and was more relevant to the average customer. The cloud – especially the public cloud – feels more abstract and less immediate; and, therefore, more useful.
This isn't a knock on Pat Gelsinger, but rather a reflection of the content. Look at what was discussed: containers, both on vSphere and non-vSphere platforms; software-defined technologies, with a focus on NSX; Workspace One; OpenStack; hyper-converged infrastructure. It seemed like there was more audience reaction as well. To me, it moved much faster, and felt shorter, even though it was about 10 minutes longer.
- I'll end with one miscellaneous annoyance. I bought a 10-ounce bag of trail mix this morning to snack on. It cost $14. Yeah, I'm in Vegas.
Posted by Keith Ward on 08/30/2016 at 11:21 AM