Virtualization, Cloud, Infrastructure and all that stuff in-between

My ramblings on the stuff that holds it all together

Getting access to VMworld content if you couldn’t make it in person

Leave a comment Posted by vinf.net on October 25, 2009

Now the noise around VMworld has calmed down I thought I would let you know that the vast amount of excellent technical content that was presented at the event itself is available to stream online or as an MP3 (audio only) or slide download (audio only).

As you’d expect, the catch is it’s not free to you unless you attended VMworld in-person. However, you can purchase a VMworld subscription which costs $699 USD per annum and gives you full access to stream and download content from the event, and all previous events back to 2004 – so if travel and time out of the office is not an option for you – how about you (or your employer) pay for a subscription to the content itself – which is obviously cheaper than attending in person.

I have pasted a full list of all sessions from VMworld 2009 US below – please don’t ask me to post the sessions online, this is explicitly forbidden as you’d expect – if you want the content I’m afraid you’ll have to pay – click the graphic below (but it’s excellent value IMHO

Note: you’ll need a vmworld.com account to view the session details linked below (it’s free and can be done here)

Super Sessions

SS4880	NetApp: Clear up the Cloud – Key Infrastructure Requirements and Real-World Implementations
SS5000	Dell: How to Get Ahead in the Cloud With Your Feet Planted Firmly on the Ground
SS5001	VMware: Extending Your IT Beyond the Datacenter: The vCloud Initiative
SS5081	Wyse: Desktop Virtualization / Cloud Computing: We Did It – Here’s How and What we Learned
SS5082	Cisco and VMware: Delivering Innovation for Virtualization
SS5120	IBM: What You Need to Know to Virtualize Today’s Data Center
SS5121	Intel: Technology transformations central to the evolution of flexible computing
SS5140	EMC: Infrastructure Architectures Purpose Built for the Virtual Datacenter
SS5160	HP: Stop Virtualizing Servers, Start Virtualizing Infrastructure
SS5220	Symantec: Complete the Promise of Virtualization
SS5240	VMware, Cisco and EMC: Engineering Developments Enabling the Virtual Datacenter
SS5241	VMware: Question and Answer Session with Paul
SS5440	VMware: Enabling Better Business Outcomes with Policy-Driven Service Level Management

Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery

BC1500	vCenter Site Recovery Manager "Up and Running" – Best Practices & Avoiding the Pitfalls
BC2082	VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager Performance and Best Practice (online only)*
BC2142	Data Recovery – Install / Configure and troubleshooting
BC2253	Pain-free VMware Agentless Backup AND Recovery – VCB & Beyond (online only)*
BC2260	Automated Disaster Recovery for Branch Offices using SRM and vSphere 4
BC2412	Managing SAP Virtualization, DR and Upgrades with EMC Ionix Technology (online only)*
BC2425	Using CDP for Cost-Effective Application Recovery in vSphere Environments
BC2520	911 Call Center Leverages VMware To Ensure Survivability
BC2537	VMware Site Recovery Manager with Enterprise Replication – A Customer Testimonial
BC2541	Re-architecting Backup and Recovery for Virtual Environments: Best Practices
BC2565	An Optimized Approach to Workload Availability in Virtualized Environments
BC2704	Site Recovery Manager, a real user experience
BC2760	Protecting the corporate infrastructure: Leveraging Site Recovery Manager for multi-site DR protection.
BC2961	VMware Fault Tolerance Architecture and Performance
BC3042	VMware SRM Enhanced Testing (online only)*
BC3083	Mission Critical: Virtualization and Robust DR Architectures for Vital Systems (online only)*
BC3086	A practical guide for recovering key applications using VMware Site Recovery Manager
BC3189	How Storage Enhances Business Continuance: From Backup to Fault Tolerance
BC3197	High Availability – Internals and Best Practices
BC3209	Creating the Fastest Possible Backups Using VMware Consolidated Backup -A Design Blueprint
BC3210	Preview of Best Practices for Recovery with Site Recovery Manager and NFS
BC3223	Planning for Optimized and Cost Effective Storage Utilizing Deduplication and Virtualization Technologies
BC3301	DR Architecture Design Workshop with SRM
BC3369	VMware Fault Tolerance Real-World Use Cases
BC3370	VMware Fault Tolerance – Overview and Best Practices
BC3384	Using IP based replication as an Enabler for Server Virtualization and Storage Repurposing
BC3386	DR Solutions and Services with Sungard and VMware
BC3387	Advanced Data Protection for Microsoft SQL and Exchange Server in a VMware Environment
BC3396	How VMware uses Site Recovery Manager for its own disaster recovery
BC3421	SRM Architecture & Features: The Road Ahead
BC3425	VMware Availability Solutions and Futures
BC3602	VMware Fault Tolerance – vSphere Workflows and API Considerations (online only)*
BC3780	How Customers are Using VMware Site Recovery Manager for Automated Disaster Recovery
BC4440	Increase consolidation ratios in vSphere environments while simplifying and improving backup and recovery
BC4580	Why you should be using Virtual Backup Appliances for Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery?
BC4840	Exploring vStorage API’s and how Veeam and Dell partner for Success
BC5380	How to bring V-Cloud & Cloud Computing to Backup & Recovery

Business Workshops

BW4740	vSphere – Evangelizing the Value Proposition
BW4741	VMware View – Evangelizing the Value Proposition
BW4742	Realizing the Return on Investment In VMware
BW4743	Planning Your Virtualization Journey

Desktop Virtualization

DV1392	Lead Practices for Integrating VMware View with Active Directory
DV1406	Integrating VMware View with your VPN (online only)*
DV1460	Leveraging Vmware View and Cisco WAAS in a ROBO deployment
DV1666	VMware View Reference Architecture
DV1667	Norton Healthcare Desktop
DV1788	The 4 C’s of Desktop Virtualization for Healthcare: Costs, Clients, Continuity, and Compliance
DV1790	Understanding TCO & ROI for VMware View (next gen VDI)
DV1961	VMware Workstation and Player Technology Preview
DV2000	VMware View Client Virtualization Platform and its Use Cases
DV2181	Leveraging SRM with VMware View – Lessons Learned
DV2223	Printing Considerations in a View Architecture
DV2243	The View Test – Running a POC
DV2363	Next Generation Client Virtualization – Technology Deep Dive
DV2380	Getting the Most from View Composer – Tips, Tricks, and Best Practices
DV2387	Scripting within VMware ThinApp
DV2439	Breaking Down Desktop Virtualization Alternatives
DV2461	Virtualization on mobile phones? Why do I need that?
DV2478	Application Troubleshooting in VMware ThinApp
DV2484	Server and Storage Sizing for VMware View
DV2485	Choosing the Right Virtual Desktop Infrastructure Platform
DV2507	VMware View – Upcoming Attractions
DV2546	Case Study: Making the Grade with VDI and K12 Education
DV2626	VMware View Security Architecture
DV2672	Cerner Millenium deployed in a VMware View environment
DV2697	VMware View – Remote Display Experiance
DV2705	ThinApp Packaging & Deployment
DV2714	Optimizing VDI Storage with VMware View: Strategies for Success
DV2734	VMware ThinApp â?? Integration with VMware View (online only)*
DV2782	Application and Desktop Virtualization
DV2785	ThinApp Reference Architecture
DV2787	VMware ThinApp – A Review of Best Practices and Design Considerations (online only)*
DV2801	Integrating VMware View into your environment
DV2861	The Journey to a Dependable VDI Solution
DV2941	Operationalizing Desktop Virtualization
DV2943	VDI to the edge, deploying virtual desktops to remote and branch offices
DV2981	What’s new with ThinApp
DV3081	From Strategy to Reality – VDI lessons learned at Embarq
DV3200	Creating a VMware View Design for the Enterprise
DV3243	ViewPlanner: An Automated Measurement Infrastructure for Large-Scale VDI Deployments
DV3258	From NT4.0 to Virtualized Desktops and Applications
DV3260	Comprehensive Performance Analysis of Remote Display Protocols in VDI Environments
DV3266	Efficient VDI Design – The Math behind VDI
DV3292	The Effective use of VMware ThinApp in Higher Education
DV3300	Switching to the Mac with VMware Fusion: Lessons Learned & Deployment Tips
DV3458	Better Software Development and Testing using VMware Workstation
DV3498	VMware View Performance and Scalability on Cisco UCS
DV3532	Virtual Desktop Security
DV3567	Don’t throw that PC! How to convert old PCs to Thin Clients using a thin Linux OS and VMware View
DV3660	VMware Fusion – Present and Future
DV3746	How to Optimize VMware View ROI with Thin Computing
DV4243	How to make BYOPC (Bring Your Own PC) a Reality?
DV4381	An Insider’s View of Mobile Phone Virtualization
DV4521	From Servers to Desktops Virtualization in a "Next Gen Data Center" for Telecommunications Companies
DV5080	Desktop Virtualization / Cloud Computing: Using the Vendor Ecosystem to Drive Maximum Success

Enterprise Applications

EA1396	SQL, Exchange and SharePoint Deployments on EMC Celerra Unified Storage (online only)*
EA1480	Best Practices for Java and J2EE Applications on VMware ESX
EA1640	SAP Scaling with VMware vSphere and IBM x3850 M2
EA1820	Virtualizing Critical Healthcare Applications
EA1941	Accelerate the Enterprise Java Application Lifecycle with SpringSource
EA2342	Oracle Database Virtualization Strategies
EA2436	Efficient and High Performance Virtualization of Oracle Database Environments using vSphere
EA2442	Software Licensing in the Virtual Enterprise: Current Problems and Future Trends
EA2526	SharePoint vSphere Best Practices
EA2583	HPC/Grid Computing and Virtualization
EA2631	Virtualizing Exchange 2007 on vSphere 4 – Technical Considerations and Customer Success Story
EA2649	Virtualizing IBM Lotus Domino and Sametime: Planning to Successful Deployment at Whirlpool
EA2652	IBM DB2 on VMware: The Most Cost-Efficient and Dynamic Database Platform
EA3104	Enterprise Application Performance and Scalability on vSphere
EA3196	Virtualizing Blackberry Enterprise Servers (BES) on VMware vSphere 4
EA3216	Best Practice for Virtualizing Active Directory using vSphere (online only)*
EA3234	Virtualizing SQL Server in a VMware vSphere environment
EA3241	Beyond Infrastructure as a Service: Developer and Runtime Services with VMware and our Partners
EA3347	Analyzing Application Stack Performance using AppSpeed
EA3376	Virtualizing Citrix XenApp using vSphere
EA3389	US Navy Marine Corps virtualizes 700,000+ Microsoft Exchange users to Achieve Mission Critical Reliability
EA3408	MySQL on VMware: Performance and Deployment Best Practices
EA3448	SAP on VMware: Advanced Networking for High Performance
EA3481	Virtualization of Analytic Databases
EA3582	Developing and Deploying Virtualized Real Time Communications within the Enterprise
EA3579	Oracle Enterprise Workloads on VMware How-To (online only)*
EA3605	Virtualizing Tier 1 Applications: The Value of the vSphere Internal Cloud as a Better Platform for Apps
EA3606	Database Consolidation on vSphere (SQL and Oracle)
EA3820	The Spheres – Using WebSphere with vSphere
EA3940	Cerner Millennium Scalability when deployed on VMware vSphere and Nehalem
EA4403	VMware IT: Exchange 2007 at VMware
EA4404	Oracle E-Business Suite: Virtually Powering VMware
EA4760	Building Cloud Ready Applications

Technology and Architecture

TA1394	vSphere 4 Advanced Storage Log Analysis
TA1440	Networking in ESX: VM DirectPath Dynamic – the road to Direct VM to Hardware (online only)*
TA1523	The Path to vSphere Unleashed
TA1541	Cool little things marketing did not tell you about vSphere 4.0
TA1670	Overview of VMware vSphere
TA1962	How and Why we Upgraded Herning Kommune’s Production Environment to vSphere 4.0 at GA
TA2021	Linux Virtual Machines: Templates, P2V and Other Tips and Tricks
TA2103	Virtual Networking with vSphere 4.0 – What’s New
TA2105	Virtual Networking Concepts and Best Practices
TA2222	ROBO – ESX implementation at Kroger Store Systems
TA2231	Securing Virtual Environments – Before and After VMsafe
TA2254	vStorage – Storage Integration for Cloud OS
TA2259	Ask the Experts – Virtualization Design
TA2262	vSphere Enterprise Stability – It’s all in the Design
TA2266	Designing the Next Generation Data Center with Unified Computing & VN-Link
TA2381	Warehouse In A Box
TA2384	Deploying Cisco Nexus 1000V in a VMware vSphere Environment
TA2400	Hypervisor Competitive Differences: What the Vendors Aren’t Telling You
TA2405	Nielsen Company Leverages VMsafe Virtual Firewalls from Altor Networks for Unprecedented Security
TA2467	Best Practices to Increase Availability and Throughput for the Future of VMware
TA2509	Storage Best Practices for Scaling Virtualization Deployments
TA2525	VMware vSphere 4 Networking Deep Dive
TA2543	VMware’s Secure Software Development Lifecycle
TA2544	A Comprehensive Look at the Security and Compliance of vSphere 4
TA2623	Enhanced Storage VMotion in vSphere 4
TA2627	Understanding "Host" and "Guest" Memory Usage and Other Memory Management Concepts
TA2646	Creative Solutions: How Florida Hospital virtualized AIX and Mastered SAN Replication for DR
TA2650	Take PowerCLI to the Next Level
TA2682	Achieving 10+ Gbps File Transfer Throughput Using Virtualization – End-User Case Study
TA2689	Controlling the Storage Impact of Virtual Server Sprawl
TA2699	Measuring Virtualization Platforms and Trends Using VMmark (online only)*
TA2713	Safe At Any Speed with VMware DRS & DPM
TA2731	Tips for Planning and Upgrading to vSphere 4
TA2732	Enterprise Approach to Deploying vSphere
TA2942	Performance Best Practices
TA2955	Sizing Tools for Storage in vSphere and VMware View Environments
TA2963	ESXtop for Advanced Users
TA3045	Implementing VMware vSphere 4.0 with HP Virtual Connect Flex-10 technology
TA3105	Long Distance VMotion
TA3195	Stateless ESXi: Scalable Rollout and Management of Virtualized Hosts
TA3212	Virtualizing Resource Intensive Applications, a Case Study with SAP
TA3220	VMware vStorage VMFS-3: Architectural Advances since ESX 3.0
TA3261	Using VMware to Conduct Digital Forensics and Criminal Investigations (online only)*
TA3264	iSCSI Scalability and Storage Performance Enhancements in vSphere 4.0
TA3286	Applications in the Cloud: Getting off the ground
TA3302	Security Considerations When Building Virtual Infrastructures Across Security Zones
TA3324	Performance Troubleshooting in Virtual Infrastructure
TA3326	Building an Internal Cloud-the Journey and the Details
TA3353	Building the TVE a Collaboration Story
TA3402	How Dell Uses Virtualization: Paving the Path to Large-scale Distributed Computing
TA3406	What is New for Storage in vSphere 4.0
TA3438	Top 10 Performance Features of VMware vSphere 4
TA3461	Tech Preview: IO DRS – Providing Performance Isolation to VMs in Shared Storage Environments
TA3488	All Hypervisors Are Not Created Equal – The Unique Advantages of VMware ESX (online only)*
TA3521	vNetwork Monitoring, Troubleshooting, Security, and Management (with Live Demo)
TA3555	Getting to over 90% Virtualization
TA3557	Using NFS Storage Infrastructure for vSphere
TA3576	Early vSphere Deployment Stories
TA3603	Getting The Most Out Of VMotion: EVC, Performance Tuning, and Troubleshooting
TA3880	Head-To-Head Comparison: VMware vSphere and ESX vs. Hyper-V and XenServer
TA3882	The Cloud- What is it and why should I care
TA3901	Security and the Cloud
TA4020	Beyond the Data Center – Virtualizing your remote and distributed IT workloads
TA4060	The Path to COS-less ESX: Migrating Server Operations from ESX to ESXi
TA4100	Internal Clouds: Customer perspective and implementations
TA4101	Buying the Cloud: Customer perspective and considerations on what to send to an external cloud
TA4102	Unveiling New Cloud Technologies
TA4103	Engineering the Cloud-The Future of Cloud
TA4160	What is new in the vSphere SDKs and APIs
TA4242	Securing the Virtual Data Center in Enterprises and Clouds
TA4341	Virtual Network Performance
TA4720	Virtualization and Cloud Computing with AMD Opteron™ Processor-based Platforms
TA4820	What Keeps Clouds Up?
TA4860	Deploying the Foundation for a Virtualized Dynamic Data Center
TA4881	Designing Dynamic Data Centers with NetApp and VMware
TA4901	IBM System x Delivers Innovation for Virtualization Solutions for Today and Tomorrow
TA4902	IBM’s Cloud Computing Solutions
TA4940	Navigating the Cloud: IT Management Challenges and Opportunities
TA4941	I/O Clouds in the Virtualized Data Center
TA4960	Virtualizing Email Security â?? The St Lawrence College Story (online only)*
TA5161	How Expedia uses Storage VMotion to Allow Datacenter to Take Flight
TA5360	Enabling the Virtual Data Center with Symmetrix V-Max
TA5400	The Soft Underbelly of Bare Metal – Real World Security Lessons from the Datacenter to the Cloud
TA5460	Optimize Your Storage: A Blueprint for Storage Resource Management in VMware Environments
TA5461	Securing the Cloud
TA5540	The Evolution of Open Source Virtualization
TA5600	Virtualization: How Cisco IT Leverages Operational Excellence to Drive Innovation

Virtualization 101

V11721	Best Practices for Successful VI Design
V12226	Building a High Availability and Disaster Recovery Solution with VMware
V12644	Designing a Virtualization Infrastructure for the Small Environment
V12789	VMware vCenter Converter 101 (online only)*
V13100	The VMware Competitive Advantage – A Comparison of Server Virtualization Offerings
V13226	Getting Started with Virtualization Using VMware ESXi
V13227	Introduction to Virtualization
V13229	Introduction to VMware vSphere
V13395	Getting to Yes! Keys to Launching a Successful Data Center Virtualization Program
V13478	Executing Enterprise Virtualization – Continuing Case Study with USMC
V13496	VMware vSphere and VI Best Practices – Tips and Tricks (online only)*
V13760	Overcoming the Hidden Challenges of Virtualization

Virtualization Management

VM1401	Using vCenter Lab Manager and View for the Education Cloud
VM1461	Avoiding the hurdles in scaling Lab Manager
VM1682	vCenter Database Architecture: Technical Deep Dive
VM1700	vApps and advanced VM templates in vSphere 4
VM1724	Technical Preview: CapacityIQ
VM1882	VMware Update Manager 4 Performance and Best Practices
VM1900	Accelerating Large Scale Migration – Best Practices, Tools, and Processes to Address Challenges
VM1960	Datacenter Consolidation and Migration with VMware Site Recovery Manager
VM2100	vSphere Orchestration for SAP’s Demo Business
VM2120	Assessment methodology for LCM customization with Orchestrator
VM2164	Virtualization and Compliance: The Auditor’s Perspective
VM2166	VMware’s New Licensing Model & Compliance Best Practices
VM2201	Turfwars! : The Future Staffing of Virtualized Environments
VM2241	Managing vSphere with VMware PowerCLI
VM2265	Achieving Measurable Advantages Through Better Virtual Systems Management
VM2280	vCenter Mobile Access – Managing Virtual Infrastructure From Your Phone
VM2408	Tech Preview: VMware vCenter ConfigControl
VM2409	Virtual Center: Troubleshooting Unleashed
VM2440	Deploying vSphere Mgmt Automation: Dependency Mapping, Root Cause, Configuration & Compliance
VM2472	Introduction to VMware vCenter Chargeback
VM2506	Automating the Virtual Data Center
VM2511	Automate Routine Actions and Enforce process in Virtual Environments (online only)*
VM2630	Using Unnoc to Perform Monitoring of vCenter, ESX Servers, and Virtual Guests
VM2643	Infrastructure Performance Panel
VM2648	Managing Compliance in Virtual Environments
VM2657	Best Practices for deploying VMware vCenter Lifecycle Manager.
VM2674	VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat Best Practices
VM2684	What’s New in vCenter Server 4
VM2700	Lab Manager Best Practices
VM2706	Improve Cloud Interoperability Using Virtualization Management Standards
VM2711	VI Performance Optimization: From the Datacenter to the Desktop (online only)*
VM2717	What’s New In Lab Manager 4?
VM2724	How to Prevent Headaches in your Virtual Environment
VM2764	From Virtualization, Automation to From Virtualization, Automation to Cloud Managemen
VM2766	Integrated and Application Centric Deployment Approach to Achieve Wider Virtualization Adoption
VM2847	Upgrading to vSphere – Things to consider
VM3021	VMware’s Tooling of VI Operations Best Practices
VM3041	Integrating Virtualization with Capacity Management
VM3085	Top 10 Reasons vCenter is the Best Platform for Virtualization Management
VM3103	How VMware Reduces Cost-per-Application and OpEx Costs
VM3120	How does VMware fit in with your management processes? VMware Integration with Big 4 + Microsoft
VM3142	Large Scale Virtualization
VM3217	vCenter Databases: Setup, Management and Best Practice (online only)*
VM3235	Introducing VMware vCenter Product Family: Managing Service Levels Across Dynamic IT Infrastructure
VM3237	VC Linked Mode in vSphere 4.0 (online only)*
VM3263	Sustainable Change Management Processes in a Virtual World
VM3325	vSphere and ESXi Log Files 101 & 102 (online only)*
VM3352	Operational Savings Achieved through Virtualization
VM3360	Assuring Service Levels for P2V migrations with AppSpeed
VM3404	Alarms for vCenter 4.0 (online only)*
VM3405	A Spotlight on vSphere Storage Management: Today and Tomorrow
VM3414	Study reveals production best practices for virtualization (online only)*
VM3427	VMware Administration for The Average Administrator
VM3433	Technical Deep Dive: VMware Host Profiles
VM3463	Monitoring Hardware Health with vCenter 4
VM3470	Seven Steps To Understanding And Mitigating Virtualization Security Risks
VM3483	Managing Application Performance with vCenter AppSpeed
VM3528	Does Virtualization Change The Way We Secure IT Environments?
VM3566	Best Practices for Managing and Monitoring Storage in vSphere
VM3580	Capacity Planning and RoI – Before, During & After the Project
VM3607	Before Chargeback, I Need To Know What It Costs
VM3609	Assessment Best Practices for VMware Partners
VM3620	Incident Handling in a Virtualized Data Center
VM3881	Business Objects SAP Virtual Infrastructure Lab Mgr Deployment and Migrating Between Network Ranges
VM3903	Practical Virtual Systems Management – Climbing The Hierarchy of Needs
VM4000	Operationalizing Software Update Management in a Growing Virtual Environment
VM4061	How to Generate Reports out of the vCenter Database
VM4120	Introduction to VMware vCenter Lifecycle Manager
VM4261	Ensuring Database Performance using VMware AppSpeed
VM4320	Vision for virtualization-aware IT management
VM4380	Tech Preview: vCenter Server
VM4520	Analyze to Automate – The Evolution of Vizioncore and How We Truly Extend VMware’s vSphere
VM4800	The "Next Generation Data Center" for Telecommunication Companies
VM4900	Building a Service-Driven Data Center: Making an Internal Cloud A Reality
VM5002	How to Gain Sponsorship and Successfully Enable Virtualization Transformation with VMware
VM5040	Amplify the Economic Benefits of Virtualization
VM5361	An Introduction to VMware vCenter Orchestrator
VM5401	Conquering Costs and Complexity in a Virtualized Environment: Research and Case Studies
VM5420	Using Lab Manager in a Regulated Healthcare Environment
VM5521	Unified Computing System – Infrastructure Management and Provisioning
VM5560	Data Center Optimization through Virtualization: Compute More, Consume Less

Instructor-Led Labs (PDFs only)

LAB01	VMware vSphere 4 – New Features, Best of, Advanced Topics
LAB02	VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager – Advanced Operations
LAB03	VMware View Advanced Config & Troubleshooting
LAB04	VMware vSphere 4 – Performance Optimization & Troubleshooting
LAB05	VMware vSphere 4 – Security Hardening & Best Practices (vShield Zones)
LAB06	VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat
LAB07	VMware vCenter Lab Manager 4
LAB08	VMware vCenter CapacityIQ
LAB09	VMware vCenter AppSpeed
LAB10	VMware vCenter Lifecycle Manager
LAB11	VMware vCenter Chargeback
LAB12	Scripting VMware Infrastructure (PowerShell/Perl Toolkits)

Self-Paced Labs (PDFs only)

SPL13	VMware® Infrastructure 3 to VMware vSphere™ 4 Upgrade
SPL14	VMware vSphere™ 4 Base Install
SPL15	VMware View Base Install & Config
SPL16	VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager (SRM) Basic Install & Config
SPL17	VMware vCenter Converter
SPL18	VMware vCenter Data Recovery
SPL19	VMware® ThinApp™
SPL20	VMware® Fusion™
SPL21	VMware View Experience
SPL22	VMware vCenter Orchestrator
SPL23	VMware vSphere™ 4 Virtual Networking Fundamentals

I wasn’t able to to go VMworld US in person this year because my wife and I were expecting a baby at that time, but luckily I received a VMworld subscription from VMware as a benefit of the vExpert programme; had I not I would have probably shelled out of my own pocket for one.

Justifying the spend

Whilst we seem to be slowly emerging from the economic apocalypse of the last 18 months it’s still very hard to get sign-off to attend such events in person and too many org’s treat VMworld/Tech-Ed as marketing type events – unless you are a vendor with a stand this couldn’t be further from the truth – these conferences are primarily technical training boot-camp camps, with some networking and general trade show features thrown in. However, they are what you make of them – the onus is on you to hunt down the sessions/track or people you are interested in – nobody drives your schedule but you – non self-starters need not apply.

I use the following analogy – which applies equally to Microsoft Tech-Ed and VMworld (..and I’m sure Oracle World, Apple World, etc.)

A typical 5-day technical training course on an individual product (Exchange, ESX, Windows 2008) in the UK will cost in the region of £1,500-3,000 GBP and those 5 days will be slow-paced (9.30 –> 4.30pm affairs). The course content and material has to cater to the lowest common denominator delegate, for a geek/experienced tech this can make for frustratingly slow progress and means you only cover a very narrow technical focus, or broad high-level overview – you can’t easily dive in and out of the bits that are relevant to you with a traditionally delivered course and even the best instructor in the world can’t dedicate that much time to you in a classroom environment.

So compare that training course is £2-3000 + travel + accommodation + time out of the office to VMworld (for example..), even at the most expensive register on-site on the day prices

VMWorld Full Conference Pass* 1,260 EUR (£1,176 GBP at current exchange rate) (Tech-Ed 5 days c.£2000 full price* ticket)
Travel (airfare from most of continental Europe, economy/flexible flight) c.£400**
Hotel (normal business hotel, 4 nights) £900**

+Access to on-demand streamed and downloaded content following the conference (access allowed until the next VMworld) included

+Lunch/breakfast usually included

+Networking opportunities, access to product teams and managers included

+trade show with relevant vendors/suppliers included

+bag and pen included (ok, I’m struggling with that one! :))

note:

*Early registration attracts a large discount on the full conference pass – look for “early bird” tickets which can knock a significant percentage off the full price

**If you are prepared to “slum” it with budget airlines and hotels this is significantly cheaper.

Prices for reference:

VMworld Europe 2009 prices

Tech-Ed Europe 2009 Prices

With Microsoft Tech-Ed they usually give a complimentary Technet Direct subscription – which is worth hundreds of pounds on it’s own and gives you multiple copies of almost every Microsoft product for your own use.

So if you look at it pragmatically – VMworld/Tech-Ed give you the flexibility to tailor your content to what is important to you; as well as the ability to take all the information away with you to review online post-conference (even for the sessions you didn’t make in person)

With a training course you walk away with a nice certificate, some spiral bound manuals and if you are lucky – a pen 🙂

And they both come out to roughly the same price.

I’m not saying this is for everyone – you need to be a self-starter to make the most of these conferences, and if you do a limited scope day-job and that is all you are interested in doing, traditional training courses are probably your best bet but for those of us that work as consultants or want to broaden our horizons – go for it!

My write-ups of previous VMWorld and Tech-Ed events can be found at the following links:

Tech-Ed EMEA 2008

https://vinf.net/2008/10/31/off-to-microsoft-teched-emea-2008/

https://vinf.net/2008/11/04/teched-emea-2008-it-pro-day-1/

https://vinf.net/2008/11/04/teched-emea-2008-it-pro-day-2/

https://vinf.net/2008/11/06/teched-emea-2008-it-pro-day-3/

https://vinf.net/2008/11/06/teched-emea-2008-it-pro-day-4/

https://vinf.net/2008/11/07/teched-emea-2008-it-pro-day-5/

VMworld Europe 2009

https://vinf.net/2009/02/23/vmworld-partner-day-keynote/

https://vinf.net/2009/02/24/vmworld-partner-day-wrap-up/

https://vinf.net/2009/02/24/vmworld-europe-day-1-keynote/