Today, I attended an incredibly informative session by Jeff Woolsey. During the session Jeff took us on an exhilarating journey into the world of cloud technologies and the power of collaboration between VMware and Microsoft.

Picture this: just a few years ago, it would have been unimaginable to see Microsoft at a VMware event. But times are changing, and in a truly impressive display, Microsoft not only exhibited but also delivered sessions showcasing the incredible synergy between these tech giants.

The session began with Jeff posing a crucial question: What cloud journey are you on? He polled the audience to find out if they were on an all-public cloud journey, all-private cloud journey, or a hybrid cloud journey. The result was eye-opening — 100% of the room raised their hands for a hybrid cloud journey. It's a testament to the industry's direction and the path that businesses are eager to tread.

Throughout the session, Jeff delved into three key areas, offering us practical demonstrations of the technology in action:

1. Azure VMware Solution: Imagine having your VMware environment seamlessly running in Azure. Jeff showcased how this integration is a game-changer for businesses, allowing them to harness the power of VMware within Azure.

2. Azure Arc: Next up was the management of Windows services in Azure. Jeff illustrated how Azure Arc simplifies managing these services, providing a centralized solution that streamlines operations.

3. Azure Arc-enabled vSphere and SQL: Jeff didn't stop there. He demonstrated how Azure Arc takes control of vSphere management, and even delved into the world of SQL, all within the Azure environment.

What truly stood out was the unified portal in Azure that brought everything together. From managing policies to bolstering security, Jeff showed us the incredible capabilities of this consolidated platform. It's a one-stop destination that empowers businesses with comprehensive control over their cloud environment.

Jeff's passion for the subject was palpable, and his captivating presentation style made it a truly enjoyable experience. It's fantastic to witness the partnership between VMware and Azure, as they work hand in hand to elevate the hybrid cloud journey that so many businesses are embarking on.

Stay tuned for more updates and insights as I continue to explore the ever-evolving tech landscape here at VM explore. The future of tech is bright, and together, we're on the cusp of something extraordinary.

I've just returned from an enlightening morning at the ModernDay Explorer keynote, and let me tell you, it was an experience filled with insights and inspiration. 🚀

The stage was graced by remarkable speakers who left us in awe. First up was Sarah Cruddas, a space journalist whose talk delved into her thrilling adventures in the space sector. She shared how exploration in space technology is making our world a better place. What's intriguing is how she connected this to our own tech realm. We've been more engrossed in cyberspace than outer space, and yet, our work in the tech sector is instrumental in advancing space exploration. It's a testament to the synergy between these two worlds.

Next in line was Alistair Humphreys, famous for cycling around the world—over 40,000 miles! But his message wasn't about epic journeys; it was about that crucial first step. You don't need to cycle around the globe to find the explorer within you. It's all about taking that initial, often challenging, doorstep mile. Venture slightly out of your comfort zone, embark on a little adventure, and you'll discover the explorer spirit right where you are. Whether it's climbing a tree every Tuesday or taking a stroll around the M25 in London, small adventures can ignite your inner explorer.

And then, we were graced by the presence of Dee Caffari, who has sailed around the world a mind-blowing six times! She emphasised the importance of finding your "why" in exploration. For her, it was studying microplastics in the ocean. Her purpose fuelled her journey.

These diverse speakers shared their remarkable journeys, but they also brought it back to a level we can all relate to. How can you find the explorer within yourself? It doesn't have to be a grand expedition; it just needs to have a purpose. The key is to step away from the routine and seek your next adventure.

So, after this engaging session, I'm all fired up to encourage you to find your next exploration. It doesn't need to be monumental; it just needs to be purposeful. Who knows, you might spot me up a tree next Tuesday!

The general session is always a favourite of mine at VMware Explore because it gives such great insight into what the vision of VMware is, what the focus is for the organisation and of course, there is always some great announcements thrown in for good measure.

Check out the video below to hear my thoughts and what my key take aways were from the session this year.

Check out my Tech Snapshots that highlight some of the key statistics and messages from the session.

I'm gearing up for an exciting adventure at VMware Explore 2023 in sunny Barcelona, and I can't wait to share what's in store this week. The event is right around the corner, and I'm getting ready to dive into a world of tech innovation.

As I prepare for the event, I'm already feeling the buzz of anticipation. Meeting familiar faces in the community area is just the start of what promises to be an engaging and exciting week.

But what excites is the lineup of sessions, especially those that explore the collaboration between VMware and Microsoft. These industry giants are poised to reshape the way businesses operate and how users engage with technology.

I'm particularly looking forward to the EUC keynote session. Each year, it's where I gain insights into VMware's efforts to enhance the employee experience in the tech-driven workplace.

I'll be your tech scout on the ground, providing real-time updates through blogs, vlogs, and tech snapshots. I'll capture key statistics and inspiring quotes from the sessions, so you won't miss a beat.

Stay connected with me on Twitter at @biztechmeg and keep an eye on techdoodles.co.uk for all the updates and insights.

In today's cloud age, with data fragmenting and IT resources becoming increasingly strained, cyber threats are a growing concern for all organisations. While traditional data protection measures remain vital, they often feel reactive rather than proactive. Commvault, however, is shifting this narrative, developing a dynamic, proactive defence against cyber threats. 

What impresses me about Commvault's strategy, particularly compared to other vendors, is their blend of data protection and security. By merging these two key aspects, Commvault's platform evolves from a 'last resort' recovery solution to an active shield against potential cyber threats. 

This approach was discussed during Commvault's recent online event, "Accelerating Cyber Defence and Response with Next Generation Data Protection". CEO, Sanjay Mirchandani, outlined several thought-provoking points that underline Commvault's proactive and integrated approach to cyber defence: 

1. The dual implications of AI, arming both defenders and adversaries with advanced tools. 

2. The complexity and vulnerabilities of using various tools to protect cloud data. 

3. The blurring of boundaries between data protection and security necessitates a unified approach. 

4. Commvault are taking security capabilities used in production directly into their protection platform.  

5. The vital importance of swift recovery, helping organisations minimise downtime and enhance resilience. 

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Commvault's CTO, David Ngo, then unveiled the latest advancements, each contributing to the company's innovative protection and security solution: 

Commvault Cloud Command: A unified dashboard for managing all Commvault services, with integrated visibility into the health, risk levels, security, and recovery. 

Commvault Risk Analysis: A machine learning-powered tool that works as a cyber sentinel, securing sensitive data to prevent cyber exposure. 

Commvault Threat Scan: A digital detective of sorts, inspecting backup content to quarantine suspicious datasets and ensuring clean recoveries. 

Commvault Auto Recovery: This tool tests your recovery readiness and offers forensic analysis to pinpoint clean recovery points.

Commvault Threatwise Advisor: This new feature enables intelligent assessment of backed-up workloads, recommending where sensors should be configured to ensure key data is protected.

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One of the event's highlights was an insightful panel discussion hosted by Steve Preston, Commvault's VP for Security. The panel comprised Moriah Hara and Dr. Ed Amoroso from TAG Cyber LLC, Commvault's own CISO, Javier Dominguez, and Yabing Wang, CIO at Just Works. This diverse group touched on a broad range of topics, such as: 

1. The critical role of the CISO in organisations: With the rising complexity of digital threats, the importance of having a strategic leader guiding an organisation's cyber defence can't be overstated. 

2. The AI threat: Imagine a video or voice message that sounds exactly like your CEO but isn't! The panel discussed the dangers of AI-manipulated communication and its implications. 

3. The changing face of risk in the age of COVID-19: The pandemic and the resultant shift to remote working have drastically changed our perception of risk and risk acceptance. 

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For those aiming to stay ahead of the curve in our evolving digital landscape, Commvault's unique approach provides a compelling solution. By prioritising proactive data protection and security, Commvault demonstrates adaptability and foresight in the face of the rapidly changing cyber threat environment. 

After a busy week at VMware Explore 2022, we wanted to reflect on our week. We discuss our experience of being back at live events, what sessions we enjoyed, what we have learnt and of course the key take aways.

Check out our video below to hear our final thoughts.

My second day of VMware Explore was just as jam-packed as day one. I started the day by attending the Microsoft Keynote, hosted by Jeff Woolsey.

Jeff discussed how over the past two years, we have gone through unprecedented change and how this has shifted our focus and objectives as an industry. One message that resonated with me and reflected what VMware presented in the general session, is the message around a cloud smart strategy. Jeff discussed how it is unrealistic to believe that we will have all apps and data in the public cloud, but actually the reality is that we will use hybrid & multi-cloud.

The two key technologies discussed in the session were Azure VMware Solution (AVS) and Azure Arc for vSphere.

Azure VMware Solution

Jeff discussed how AVS allows you to run a vSphere environment within Azure. Therefore, you are able to use the familiar VMware infrastructure you know (and love), within the cloud. Throughout the session, Jeff discussed different use cases where AVS can be extremely beneficial.

The first use case was for organisations that want to migrate their workloads to Azure with simplicity and ease. This may be good for people that are starting their cloud journey or that need to move their workloads to the cloud quickly. The most important factor that Jeff stated and emphasised was that with any move to the cloud, it should always be planned correctly. This resonated with the ‘cloud smart’ message from VMware.

The second use case was to be used for Disaster Recovery. With AVS, you are able to replicate your vSphere workloads on-premises to Azure.

Azure Arc

Azure Arc simplifies governance and management by delivering a consistent multi-cloud and on-premises management platform. Arc allows you to configure, manage and secure your environments regardless of where they are located.

Jeff discussed how this technology is able to save organisations time and resource as it is all centrally managed, allowing teams more time to innovate. We also saw a customer case study from Greggs. It was interesting to hear first-hand how this food chain was using Azure Arc to free up their time to be able to innovate and plan for the future.

It was great to learn more about these technologies and ultimately, it was great to see how Microsoft and VMware are coming together to give customers the best experience, regardless of the technology they use.

vSphere 8 updates

Following this session, I attended the overflowing vSphere 8 session to learn more about the new innovations and features that are introduced with vSphere 8. There was lots covered so I have summarised the key announcements:

• vSphere 8 introduces a cloud consumption interface bringing self-service access to IaaS

• vSphere 8 builds a flexible and open ecosystem of DPU solutions

• vSphere 8 supports higher complexity AI & ML workloads

• vSphere 8 allows you to monitor your workload power consumption so that you can make sustainable adjustments where necessary

In the afternoon, I took the time to explore the expo floor. It was good to learn more about what VMware partners are doing to innovate and ultimately help their customers. There was a lot to learn about the new products from partners and some great conversations about the industry. In my opinion, this is a key element that we miss at virtual events and is great to be able to immerse myself in the industry again.

And lastly, as always, it was great to attend the VMware party. This year, the band was Simple Minds, who put on a great show and of course it was great to catch up with more of the community. I am looking forward to the last day today and learning even more!

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @BizTechMeg to keep up with my live snapshots, short vlogs and more throughout the event!

The general session is always a favourite of mine at VMware Explore because it gives such great insight into what the vision of VMware is, what the focus is for the organisation and of course, there is always some great announcements thrown in for good measure.

Check out the video below to hear my thoughts and what my key take aways were from the session this year.

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @BizTechMeg to keep up with my live snapshots, short vlogs and more throughout the event!

Today was the first day of VMware Explore 2022. The event was kicked off with a general session which is always a great opportunity to learn more about VMware’s vision, key announcements and new technology.

The session was kicked off with VMware’s CEO, Raghu Raghuram. Raghu’s key message of the session was focused on shifting focus from a ‘cloud first’ approach to a ‘cloud smart’ approach. VMware found that many with a cloud first approach actually didn’t achieve what they wanted to as effectively or efficiently as they would like. This ineffective cloud first approach has now led to cloud chaos!

Raghuram believes companies that adopt a cloud smart approach can move from disparate teams to a consistent cloud strategy, providing better experiences and a more secure strategy.

The keynote moved quickly with lots of content and announcements from a number of great speakers. Some of the key messages and announcements were:

• How we need to innovate to reduce energy costs and ultimately help ourselves in the future

• vSAN 8 & vSphere 8 are Generally Available (GA) as of today

• That VMware Cross Cloud services give you consistent experiences across any cloud and we need to accept that it is inevitable that businesses will use multiple clouds, not just one.

• Flexible working is here to stay and 75% of organisations recognise the Digital Employee Experience needs to be a top priority

• That organisations need not only to try and prevent Ransomware attacks but have the right tools in place to recover from an attack. An attack happens every 11 seconds, so you need to be able to recover to a good point as quickly as possible. VMware Ransomware Recovery can help.

• And there were some great customer stories from Mclaren and Llyods Banking about how VMware have allowed them to innovate and improve their experiences

Following the general session, I attended an influencer & press panel session with a number of VMware execs, hosted by Joe Baguley. It was great to hear a little more about the company’s vision and get some real detailed answers about various areas of the organisation, building upon what we heard in the general session.

There were great questions and discussions about the Broadcom acquisition, reducing carbon footprint, security and more and it was great to get these insights from the exec’s first hand.

After some lunch and a catch-up with the community, I joined the EUC solutions keynote hosted by Shankar Iyer. The key message from this session was focused on how work has fundamentally changed, and we need to adapt to ensure that the employee experience is consistent and personalised to enable employees to work effectively.

Shankar discussed how organisations also need to bring together experience and security and make sure they are balanced. Many don’t get this balance right and it can either put too much emphasis on security, negatively impacting the experience, or prioritising experience over security and putting your business at risk.
A big focus of session was about automation and how with automated tools and processes, we are able to do more with less. There were some great customer stories and demonstrations that discussed and showed how these organisations are using automation to improve experiences without impacting security.

Lastly, Shawn Bass was on stage demonstrating and discussing some of the Workspace ONE technologies and the autonomous workspace in action. This was a great insight into how this technology can work and actually see some real benefit it can bring organisations.

Whilst my brain was full of content and I was busy digesting all that I had already heard throughout the day, I took a lap around the solutions exchange to learn more about what is happening in the industry. Tomorrow, I want to spend longer in the solutions exchange to learn more about how these VMware partners are enabling businesses and improving experiences, whether that is related to cloud, employee experiences or security.

I am already excited for another day of exploring tomorrow!

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @BizTechMeg to keep up with my live snapshots, short vlogs and more throughout the event!

There are so many tips and tricks that we could share to ensure you make the most out of VMworld. Whilst these tips differ slightly than if the event were in person (where we would be telling you to wear comfortable shoes), below we have included our top tips to ensure you make the most out of this year's virtual event (and fingers crossed the last virtual one we have to attend).

If you have not yet registered for VMworld 2021 VMware’s Premier Multi-Cloud event - register now!

Once you have registered, take a look at all the amazing sessions and build your schedule!

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Book the time out!

The problem with a virtual event can be the temptation to tune in whilst you are still trying to keep up with business as usual! So our advice would be to treat it like an in-person event, get permission from your boss to attend and dedicate the time to it!

Think about what you want to achieve by attending the conference

Before picking your sessions, think about what you want to achieve by attending the conference. What projects are coming up at work, or what skills gaps do you or your organisation have that you can use your time attending VMworld to achieve? Maybe write yourself a shortlist of questions to answer with your attendance!

Build your agenda

Taking the above in mind, take the time before the event to look at the session catalogue and add the sessions to your agenda using the session builder. Without doing this, it can be overwhelming selecting which sessions to watch during the event due to the pure amount of content to choose from (like a child in a sweet shop).

Filter sessions in the session catalogue

With so many sessions and fantastic content, it can sometimes be difficult to filter through to find relevant information. Therefore, in the session catalogue, we recommend using the filters on the left of the page to filter by session type, product, track, topic, level and more. This will help you find the sessions that are relevant to you.

Get involved in the community

One of the best bits of VMworld is the community engagement throughout every aspect of the event, whether during a keynote, walking around the exhibition hall or during the events in the evening. This is definitely one of the key elements that we miss with events being virtual at the moment, but that isn't to say that the community feel isn't there. So get involved in the conversation on Twitter using #VMworld2021 and engage with the community, share your thoughts, opinions and of course, share others content to help promote their content too!

We will be joining the conference and sharing our thoughts with the community on Twitter, so follow us at VirtualisedReal and BizTechMeg!

Get comfortable and avoid the distractions

When the time has come for your to tune in for VMworld 2021, get comfortable (maybe tune in from your TV in the lounge!), bring your snacks, set your out of office, turn on do not disturb in Teams and tune in! We recommend taking notes during the sessions, but if that doesn't suit you, reserve time in your agenda to reflect on what you have learnt and note the actions you wish to take with this newfound knowledge!

We hope you find these tips useful and enjoy your virtual trip to VMworld 2021!

Register for VMworld 2021 now and build your schedule!!@

With VMworld just around the corner and coming around before we know it, now is a great time to look at the schedule, understand what sessions will be included, and build your schedule for the event.

If you have not yet registered for VMworld 2021 - register now!

Once you have registered, take a look at all the fantastic sessions and build your schedule!

This year I am taking a keen interest in security and employee experience. With so much changing throughout 2020, I perceive these two areas as the biggest impacted and needed to adapt quickly. Furthermore, these changes need to be future proof for the world of 'new normal'. Below are the top sessions I recommend you add to your schedule for VMworld 2021!

Achieving Happiness: The Quest for something new [IC1484] – Amanda Belvins & Steve Athanas

After 2020 and 2021, not the years we had planned, it has changed our view on many things. Ensuring I always put my happiness first is crucial, and the pandemic highlighted the importance of this for me. I think the fact that VMware are including sessions around wellbeing, happiness and people in the agenda is incredible and speaks volumes.

Digital Employee Experience: The Key to a Successful Anywhere Workspace [EUS2069] – Amit Sharma

With a large percentage of the workforce now working remotely, employee experience from day 1 has changed drastically. Not only has the technology needed to adapt to accommodate this for onboarding, but the people, processes and culture have needed to adapt also. Technologies such as Workspace ONE enable businesses to monitor and automate employee engagement to allow businesses to proactively remediate actions to improve employee experience and further engage their workforce.

Another session related to this subject is: How to support a remote workforce with Workspace ONE [EUS1723] – Pooja Chengappa & Dany Leclerc

Next Year's News: EUC's Vision and Announcements with CTO Shawn Bass [EUS2470]

I always find that Shawn Bass’ EUC keynote session is one of my favourites at VMworld and one that I have always ensured I attend when I am at VMworld. It is not only great to hear the latest announcements about new features from VMware, but it is also always insightful to hear from Shawn about the reason behind the new features and bring it into context for businesses.

How to Improve Your Endpoint Security and Simplify Your Workflows [SEC2662] – Justin Flack

With data being completely segregated and dispersed due to the pandemic, businesses have to manage and secure data in new ways. This session will be engaging to understand VMware’s vision for security in terms of protection, detection and response.

Becoming a Force for Good: A Panel on Adapting to a Changing Tech Community [IC1352]

After the ex-CTO of VMware, Pat Gelsinger announced that Technology needs to be used for a force for good at VMworld 2019; it will be great to hear from the panellists about how VMware and their employees have been innovating and working to constantly deliver upon this vision.

The Time Is Now – Align Your Cybersecurity Needs and Objectives [SEC2390] – Martin Redler

With the cyber-security landscape constantly changing, businesses are having to change how they manage and secure data. This session will cover building a secure strategy to meet your businesses security objectives and protect data.

Multi-Cloud: Can It Solve Future Business Challenges? [MCL3016S]

With many organisations beginning to look at moving to the cloud, this session will inform and interesting to understand from real-life experiences how multi-cloud can solve business challenges. This session will deliver a large amount of advice for people looking to move to multi-cloud and hopefully answer some questions about it.

Register for VMworld 2021 now and build your schedule!

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