Personal blog about VMware – vSphere – NSX – HomeLabs – Cloud – SDDC – Storage – CMP – vSAN – Aria – Tanzu – Terraform
Category: vExpert
Each year, we bring together in the vExpert Program the people who have made some of the most important contributions to the VMware community. These are the bloggers, book authors, VMUG leaders, speakers, tool builders, community leaders and general enthusiasts. They work as IT admins and architects for VMware customers, they act as trusted advisors and implementors for VMware partners or as independent consultants, and some work for VMware itself. All of them have the passion and enthusiasm for technology and applying technology to solve problems. They have contributed to the success of us all by sharing their knowledge and expertise over their days, nights, and weekends.
Hey everyone, let me share some awesome news, I’ve just been awarded the VMware vExpert 2024 for the eighth year in a row! 🏆🎉
Now, if you’re scratching your head wondering what exactly that means, don’t worry, I’ve got you covered. Essentially, the VMware vExpert program is like the club for folks who are really into VMware technologies. And guess what? I’m super honored to be part of that club, especially for the eighth time running!
First things first, I gotta give a massive shoutout to VMware / Broadcom and the amazing vExpert Team. Seriously, these folks are like the unsung heroes behind the scenes, making sure the VMware community stays vibrant and buzzing with excitement. Without their hard work and dedication, none of this would be possible.
I’ve met some incredible folks along the way, fellow vExperts who have become friends, mentors, and colleagues at ITQ, and most importantly, we’ve learned from each other.
So, what does eight years of vExpert status mean to me? Well, for starters, it’s a reminder to never stop pushing myself, to keep learning, growing, and evolving as a technologist. Whether I’m writing blog posts, giving talks at conferences, or just hanging out in the VMware community Slack channel, I’m always looking for ways to give back and pay it forward.
And of course, none of this would be possible without the support of my family, friends, and colleagues. You guys are the real MVPs, always cheering me on, even when I’m knee-deep in a particularly gnarly ESXi upgrade.
So here’s to another year of virtualization adventures, of pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with VMware technologies, and most importantly, of being part of an incredible community that I’m proud to call home.
Thanks again to VMware and the vExpert Team for this amazing honor. Let’s make the next eight years even more epic!
See you next time! 🙂 Thanks for reading my blog.
This year VMworld 2018 Europe is held in Barcelona Spain from 5 November until 8 November. This has been the location for some time now. Only the date shifted a couple months backward compared to last year (September > November). This page will be updated multiple time in the coming days. I will add additional information and announcements multiple times a day.
I was able to attend myself in person thanks to my employer ITQ. This year we traveled with 33 ITQ colleagues to VMworld 2018 Europe. In total 12000 people attended VMworld 2018 Europe in Barcelona.
VMworld 2018 EU – Product Announcements
On VMworld 2018 in Europe, the following products and/or services were announced.
VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 3.5
In the opening keynote VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 3.5 has been released.
VMware Cloud Foundation is an automated release of the Software-Defined Datacenter with vSphere, NSX, and vSAN in the core. On top VMware is using there vRealize Suite for creating an entire Cloud Management Platform.
The VCF 3.5 release includes the following new features:
Clarity UI as for all VMware products.
More intuitive end-to-end UI driven workflows
Improved UI responsiveness and performance
Dashboard with widgets to more easily surface important SDDC information
Updated navigation and consistency between workflows
Extendable platform to ensure that we can incorporate new releases and functionality (ex. New workflow wizards, dashboard widgets)
Updated for vSphere 6.7 U1
NSX-T Workload domain
NFS Workload domain – use cases that requires NFS
Not my area of expertise (EUC) but VMware Horizon 7 will be available on VMware Cloud on AWS because of the overwhelming interest from the customers. The information can be found in the source below.
On the first day of VMworld 2018 Europe, Pat Gelsinger announced a Region Expansion for VMware Cloud on AWS. There will be new regions in Europe and the US.
I have created a gallery with some photo’s I have taken the last couple of days on VMworld 2018 Europe.
VMworld 2018 EU – Entrance Building
VMworld 2018 EU – Entrance
VMworld 2018 EU – Backpack
VMworld 2018 EU – Opening Keynote
VMworld 2018 EU – Wade Holmes & Yves Sandford VMware Cloud Provider POD
VMworld 2018 EU – vExpert HOL Tour
VMworld 2018 EU – HOL Testing
VMware 2018 EU – vExpert Bag
VMware 2018 EU – VMware Booth
VMworld 2018 EU – Pivotal Partners Europe
VMworld 2018 EU – Ruurd Keizer Sharing Experience about using VMware Pivotal Container Service (PKS)
VMworld 2018 EU – VxRail 4-Node Appliance
VMworld 2018 EU – FEST
VMworld 2018 EU – FEST Counterfeit Stones
VMworld 2018 EU – Personal Highlights
To summarize my personal highlights that I encountered on VMworld 2018 Europe.
Meeting with the guys behind the VMware Validated Designs (VVD) and VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) (Forbes Guthrie and Daniel Koeck).
The VMware Private Hands-On Lab (HOL) Tour provided for the VMware vExperts.
Connecting with the vCommunity.
Connecting with old colleagues and customers.
Connecting with the people that maintain and support the VMware Hands-On Labs (Cody de Arkland / Gavin Lees).
My colleague Ruurd Keizer that was called on stage to talk about his experience with PKS (Pivotal Container Service) and share that with other VMware Partners.
VMworld 2018 EU – Keynotes
Here are the recordings of the VMworld 2018 Europe Keynotes and live streams for the coming days:
In this section, I have listed some interesting blogs and recordings from VMworld 2018 Europe. The people listed below are mostly people I work with or are vCommunity friends:
Just like every year, William Lam from the website virtuallyGhetto creates a GIT repository with all the VMworld sessions. For each session, a recording and presentation is provided on his Git Repository. It will probably be a couple of days till weeks until all sessions become available:
I am happy to announce that as of today I entered the VMware vExpert NSX sub-program. Thanks, VMware for the award and congratulations to everyone else who also made it! Also an extraordinary achievement for our team at ITQ, we managed to get seven consultants in the vExpert NSX 2018 sub-program! This year VMware awarded 169 people worldwide for the vExpert NSX sub-program.
vExpert NSX:
Since when does the vExpert NSX sub-program exist?
The VMware vExpert NSX sub-program was introduced in the year 2016 and announcements are made every year.
So what is the difference between the vExpert NSX sub-program and vExpert program?
The program is built upon the vExpert program. To apply you must be a current vExpert as well as evangelizing VMware NSX.
What is VMware expecting of a vExpert NSX?
Each of these vExperts has demonstrated significant contributions to the community and a willingness to share their expertise with others. Contributing is not always blogging or Twitter as there are many public speakers, book authors, scriptwriters, VMUG leaders, VMTN community moderators and internal champions among this group.
Last Friday VMware announced the vExperts for 2018. I’m pleased to announce that I have been rewarded with a vExpert 2018 award. This means I have been selected for a double in a row! I would like to congratulate everyone that has been awarded by VMware and VMware for supporting the community.
I’m also pleased to tell that my employer ITQhas fifteen vExperts for 2018. Congrats guys! For those interested ITQ is a VMware Premier Partner (the highest level in the VMware Partner Professional Services Program) and we are an independent VMware knowledge partner.
The VMware vExpert award?
The VMware vExpert program is VMware’s global evangelism and advocacy program. The program is designed to put VMware’s marketing resources towards your advocacy efforts. Promotion of your articles, exposure at our global events, co-op advertising, traffic analysis, and early access to beta programs and VMware’s roadmap.
Each year, we bring together in the vExpert Program the people who have made some of the most important contributions to the VMware community. These are the bloggers, book authors, VMUG leaders, speakers, tool builders, community leaders and general enthusiasts. They work as IT admins and architects for VMware customers, they act as trusted advisors and implementors for VMware partners or as independent consultants, and some work for VMware itself. All of them have the passion and enthusiasm for technology and applying technology to solve problems. They have contributed to the success of us all by sharing their knowledge and expertise over their days, nights, and weekends.
This week I travelled with my colleagues to VMworld 2017 in Barcelona Spain. This was my first VMworld but luckily my colleagues helped me out with putting a schedule together. The days were absolutely great and well-organized thanks to my employer ITQ (special thanks to Francisco Perez van der Oord and Paul Geerlings).
This blog post is about my first VMworld with my personal highlights.
VMware vSphere 6.5 Host Resources Deep Dive
At the Rubrik stand, a thousand copies were given away of the best book in stores now (personal opinion) “VMware vSphere 6.5 Host Resources Deep Dive“. At a specific time, you had to wait in line to get a free copy of the book signed by Frank Denneman and Niels Hagoort. I was one of the lucky people who got a free copy with their signatures :).
VMworld 2017 Sessions
At VMworld, I attended a lot of sessions but my personal top three were the following:
Delivering Hybrid Cloud Architectures for Your Customer with VMware Cloud on AWS – Adam Osterholt
Replicating VMware VVols: A technical deep dive into VVol array-based replication in vSphere 6.5 – Claudio Calisto, Nick Dyer
vCenter Performance Deep Dive – Ravi Soundararajan
I also attended a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) session with Tom Corn the Vice President of Security Products at VMware about AppDefense.
Server and Storage Hardware (Dell EMC / HPE)
On Tuesday I visited multiple hardware vendors about their new products.
At the HPE stand they showed the new HPE ProLiant gen 10 servers and their current storage portfolio 3PAR, Nimble. A beta version of the HPE ProLiant DL360 G10 was displayed and there was an iLO5 demo.
The Dell EMC stand was one of the largest on VMworld. They displayed all their main products and were displaying demos.
Final word
I could blog all day about the announcements and sessions but luckily all information is available for everyone. You can find the sessions on the vendor websites or on YouTube. The company I work for has created a dedicated page to display all the VMworld news items.
Yesterday VMware announced the list of 2017 Second Half vExperts. I was pleased to hear that I am also selected. For ITQ (my employer) this means we have in total 14 vExpert and 5 vExpertNSX. Congratulations to everyone else that got their accreditations.
What is a vExpert?
The VMware vExpert program is VMware’s global evangelism and advocacy program. The program is designed to put VMware’s marketing resources towards your advocacy efforts. Promotion of your articles, exposure at our global events, co-op advertising, traffic analysis, and early access to beta programs and VMware’s roadmap.
Each year, we bring together in the vExpert Program the people who have made some of the most important contributions to the VMware community. These are the bloggers, book authors, VMUG leaders, speakers, tool builders, community leaders and general enthusiasts. They work as IT admins and architects for VMware customers, they act as trusted advisors and implementors for VMware partners or as independent consultants, and some work for VMware itself. All of them have the passion and enthusiasm for technology and applying technology to solve problems. They have contributed to the success of us all by sharing their knowledge and expertise over their days, nights, and weekends.
