Take Five With Tom Fenton
Take Five with Tom Fenton: Must-See VMware Explore 2022 Sessions
After being a completely virtual event for the past two years, VMware Explore, formerly known as VMworld, will be held in-person this year at the Moscone Center in San Francisco Aug. 29-Sept. 1, with most of the content also being livestreamed.
I created two Take Five with Tom Fenton blogs on VMware Explore sessions this year. In the first one I looked at Horizon sessions, and in this one I will look at all the other sessions that will be presented at the conference this year.
Here are my five must-see VMware Explore sessions from the content catalog on the technologies that I find most interesting.
TAKE 1 Core Storage Best Practice Deep Dive [CEIB1382USD]
This session will focus on three of my favorite storage topics: NVMe over Fabrics (NVMeoF), Virtual Machine Fabric System (VMFS) and vSphere Virtual Volumes (vVols). I firmly believe that NVMeoF is the future of storage and I want to bone up on it as much as possible. vVols is an often-neglected technology that can radically change the way that companies see and use storage, and I am excited to hear some best practices around using it.
TAKE 2 Extreme Performance Series: vSphere Advanced Performance Tutorial [CEIT1097US]
Let's face it, 99 percent of the people who will be attending Explore run vSphere, and if they are able to eke out a modicum of extra performance from it, this can yield substantial returns. This tutorial is hosted by Mark Achtemichuk and Valentin Bondzio, two extremely knowledgeable VMware employees.
TAKE 3 Getting to Know Salt [OSB1582US]
VMware acquired SaltStack (an infrastructure as code company) a couple years ago, and I have been trying to find the time to acquaint myself with its namesake product, Salt, ever since. I am hoping that this breakout session will give me the push I need to finally start working with it.
TAKE 4 Project Monterey Behind the Scenes: A Technical Deep Dive [CEIB1576US]
The power of data processing units (DPUs) amazes me as it allows you to offload work from a server's CPU to discrete devices that are better suited to certain tasks. Being able to run ESXi on these discrete cards is fascinating, and I am excited about diving deeper into the technology behind it.
TAKE 5 Operationalizing VMware Skyline [VMTN1998US]
Skyline is one of the unsung products from VMware and as I have previously had the opportunity to work with Tristan Todd, the presenter of this session, I know that this will be a very exciting and entertaining TechTalk.
Excited Again!
After two years, I am excited to see that VMware is once again having an in-person conference and that I will be able to attend. Above are just a few of the sessions that I will be attending, but at an event like this, there are events for everyone involved with VMware's family of products.
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.