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

Then you need to come to the London VMUG on July 17th (in London, UK), we are very lucky to be one of the few VMUGs that are able to deliver NDA content to VMware customers.

As this is NDA type content There are some caveats as to who can attend  – as listed below, but for those that aren’t eligible we have something else planned that will definitely be of interest.

And, we also have the usual array of awesome COMMUNITY, VMware and sponsor technical content. e.g no sales spin, no men in shiny suits and bonus schemes, real. interesting. relevant. technical content for YOU (ok, and me too!).

Sign up and view the full agenda here: http://www.vmug.com/p/cm/ld/fid=6757

As I’m sure you understand VMware closely guard their roadmap and NDA content, we are very lucky to be able to deliver it at a VMUG, but there are some rules to prevent NDA material being leaked. If this happens VMware won’t be willing to help us deliver this content in future – so it’s in your interest to help safeguard the content – please respect this and the community spirit VMUG represents. You will have to sign a one-way personal NDA prior to being allowed entry to the NDA session.

All official VMware partners can request the content via their account manager at VMware, but to help make it clear we’ve put together an FAQ as follows.

• I am an employee of a commercial or public sector organisation and we buy VMware products, or plan to, can I go the NDA session? Yes.
• I’m a contractor and I work for a customer/consultancy, can I go to the NDA session? Yes
• I work for a storage/network/server vendor, and am a VMware partner can I go to the NDA session? No. but you can request a private session via your VMware partner manager.
• I work for a software vendor, and we are a VMware partner; can I go to the NDA session? No, but you can request a private session via your VMware partner manager.
• I work for a reseller/consultancy who are a VMware partner, can I go the NDA session? No, but you can request a private session via your VMware partner manager.
• I work for a cloud/managed/hosting service provider and we are VMware partners, can I go to the NDA session? No, but you can request a private session via your VMware partner manager.

This list isn’t exhaustive, if in-doubt of your status, bring a business card on the day andVMware can make a call, but please don’t be disappointed if we can’t admit you; we have an interesting update on VMware’s vision and strategy.

My main role in helping to run the UK & London VMware User Group (VMUG) is finding, arranging, press-ganging and cajoling people into giving sessions at one of our quarterly VMUG meetings – I look for primarily for solid, interesting content, especially if it’s “outside of the box” and secondly a professional speaker – I don’t care who you are or if the last presentation you delivered was when you played the carrot in the cub scout christmas play aged 8 (yes, that was me – before you ask!).

You’ll get a lot out of presenting at a VMUG – even if you’re nervous, or new to presenting we can help to coach you through to a successful session and VMUG audiences, even helping you to find a co-presenter to help you out – the #FeedForward initiative is also a massive supporter of YOU and the audience are ALWAYS friendly and like-minded.

You don’t have to be captain of a datacentre the size of the starship enterprise to have something interesting to say, my 1st VMUG presentation 5 years ago was on my 2-host lab environment, and ever since I’ve iterated that vTARDIS presentation and delivered sessions on it at VMworld and VMUGs and other conferences around the world (Melbourne, Copenhagen, Chicago) and it even won the VMworld best of show award –  it’s been a hugely rewarding and enjoyable experience and I would encourage you all – no matter how timid or insignificant you think your experiences are to get in touch with your local VMUG and volunteer to do a presentation – VMUGs are about community and content – and we (the UK/LDN committee) work VERY hard to ensure the right balance between VMware, sponsor and COMMUNITY content.

In recent London VMUG’s we’ve started doing a slot for lightning-talks where you deliver a short, sharp & to-the-point 5-15min presentation on a topic of your choosing, these are a great way to jump-start your presenting career locally, and maybe even globally as they’re much less daunting than a normal 45-60min slot and are an excellent way to dip your toe in the water, there are also panel & round-table discussions that are a good way to get involved.

Being able to present, articulate a point and hold a confident discussion on a topic is a critical career skill if you want to stand out from the crowd, or keep your seat in a world of increasing off-shoring and out-sourcing.

So, in short get in touch (details on about page), present something, go LARGE by submitting your talk for VMworld via the call for papers process –  Let’s be realistic, VMworld sessions are traditionally hard to get accepted for unless you’re a sponsor or a well recognised name and there is a LOT of competition, on the other hand VMUGs sometimes struggle to find people willing to present, a lot of those recognised names started their vSpeaking career by getting involved at a local VMUG first – you do the maths, literally what have you got to lose?

BTW Next London VMUG meeting (#LonVMUG on twitter) is 15th May 2014.

For the 2nd annual UK VMware User Group Conference this Thursday not only have we secured the cream of the crop of VMware, sponsor and community speakers (main agenda here) but we’re also running what I like to call (for lack of a better name) The Community Mezzanine

These sessions will be held on the Mezzanine level at the back of the sponsor solutions exchange area, we have very limited availability and access will be on a first-come-first-served basis. The current topics and sessions are as follows;

The timings for these sessions are currently as follows (we may need to make some adjustments on the day so check the board by the mezzanine area).

Official registration is now closed for the event but we will be able to accommodate walk-in registrations if you are able to make it, hope to see you there, it’s going to be Epic!

Quick heads-up it’s not long now until the next London VMware User Group (VMUG) meeting on 14th July, I’m also pleased to announce that I have joined the steering committee and will be helping out with finding useful and content. We are always open to suggestions and VMUG is all about the User so don’t be shy, particularly if you have ideas for hands-on labs or topics you would like to see covered – leave a comment with an idea, or drop me a mail (details on my about page) – you don’t have to be running the largest infrastructure in the world or have a brain the size of a planet, bring your ideas, your woes, your experiences and share them with the community.

If you’ve never been before – now is the time to make time.

London VMUG Meeting

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Meeting: 10:00 a.m. – 17:00 p.m.

Networking Reception: 17:00 p.m.

London Chamber of Commerce and Industry
33 Queen Street
London, EC4R 1AP
Click here for directions

Networking Reception
Pavilion End
23 Watling Street, EC4M 9BR

The London VMUG Steering Committee are delighted to invite you to our next event. Following on from the success of the new format unveiled at the May 12th VMUG, we will continue with multiple tracks and a vCOPS focused lab, along with a Genius Bar from VMware GSS to answer any burning issues you might have.  Details are below and we are grateful to our sponsors – Arista Networks, Embotics and Vision Solutions.

Please Note: If you wish to participate in the lab, you MUST bring your own laptop/client device please! You will need View 4.6 client installed (or admin rights to install it).
 
Agenda
 
Plenary sessions in Capital
10:00 a.m.  – 10:15 a.m. – Welcome, Alaric Davies, Chairman
10:15 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. – Cloudvision for the Virtualised Environment, John Peach, Arista Networks, Sention System Architect
11:00 a.m. – 11:45 a.m. – Private Cloud Management Made Simple, Martin Sajkowski, Embotics, EMEA Operations & Colin Jacks Senior Solutions Specialist
11:45 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.  – Break in Sponsor Expo
12:15 p.m. – 13:00 p.m.– Double-Take by Vision Solutions – Christian Willis, Technical Director: Meeting the Availability Challenges of physical, Virtual and Geographically Dispersed Systems
13:00 p.m. – 14:00 p.m.– Lunch in Sponsor Expo

Track 1                                                                                                                              

14:00 p.m. – 14:50 p.m. – vCOPS Advanced, Mark Stockham, VMware  
15:00 p.m. – 15:50 p.m. – SRM Futures, Mike Laverick                                               
16:00 p.m. – 16:50 p.m.- Cloud: Can You Compete? Mark Craddock

Track 2

14:00 p.m. – 14:50 p.m. – Thinking, Building & Scripting Globally, Julian Wood
15:00 p.m. – 15:50 p.m. – Managing IT as We Evolve to Cloud Computing, Colin Fernandez, VMware
16:00 p.m. – 16:50 p.m. -  How to Save your Time With PowerCLI, Jonathan Medd

17:00 p.m. – Close
17:00 p.m. – Onward Drinks at Pavilion End

Please note the agenda is subject to change

Thank you to our meeting sponsor:  

Register Today to join us for this free informative event.

Please note: You will need to log into the VMUG web site to register for this meeting. If you have not already obtained your VMUG login credentials, please visit the Username and/or Password Help page to request your username and password.

The next London VMware User group is open for registration, with a rather cloudy-theme and for the 1st time ever – live labs and multiple tracks!

Thursday, May 12, 2011

London Chamber of Commerce and Industry
33 Queen Street
London, EC4R 1AP

The London VMUG Steering Committee are delighted to invite you to our next event and to unveil a new format to our previous VMUGs taking place on Thursday, May 12, 2011.  In response to your feedback and suggestions, we will have multiple tracks, multiple sponsors and labs. Our theme for this VMUG is “Your Journey to the Cloud”  and to deliver our comprehensive agenda, the day will now start at 10am! Details are below and we are grateful to our sponsors – COLT, EMC and Quest.

Registration is open and included as part of member benefits for all VMUG members. Please note, in order to register for this meeting we ask that you sign up for a complimentary VMUG membership. Click login below to sign up today.

Agenda:

Plenary sessions in Capital

10.00 – 10.20 – Welcome, Alaric Davies, Chairman

10.20 – 11.00 –  presententation & demo the vCloud1 -Greg Branch, Director of Architecture, Colt and Dan Senior, Virtualisation Architect, Colt

1.00 – 11.45 – Paul Martin, Quest – Private Cloud – Build for Success by Planning for Failure, with Quest Software

11.45 – 12.15 – Break in Thames where our sponsors will be exhibiting

12.15 – 13.00 – EMC

13.00 – 14.00 – Lunch in Thames where our sponsors will be exhibiting

TRACK 1

14.00 – 14.50      Massimo re Ferre, Making sense of vShield & vCD for the “average Joe”            

15.00 – 15.50      Jason Miles, Automation in the Cloud                                                                                   

16.00 – 16.50      Mark Craddock

TRACK 2

14.00 – 14.50      Stuart Radnidge, Rethinking Infrastructure

15.00 – 15.50      Tom Brand, Cloud topic

16.00 – 16.50      Cloud topic TBA

17.00 – Close

17.00 – Networking Reception at Pavilion End, 23 Watling Street, EC4M 9BR

Labs

These will be running simultaneously from 10:20 a.m. and you will need to register upon arrival to book your lab session.

The VMUG are providing VMware vCloud Director Labs for all UG members to get a look and feel for the product.  COLT has very kindly agreed to host the labs ontheir infrastructure in the Cloud.  COLT are a certified VMware vCloudDatacenter Services Provider and the first in EMEA to provide this service.  The COLT team along with VMware vCloud Architects have provided two types of labs to provide the best experience possible.

Lab A – Consuming Cloud resources from VMware vCloud Director
This lab is tailored to provide a user’s view of consuming compute resource from the cloud.  It provides an insight into the ability provide resources via a self-service portal deploying virtual machines via vApps within private virtual datacenters.

Lab B – Administrating VMware vCloud Director
This lab provides the administrators view of vCloud Director.  The lab contains a virtual center server, vCloud Director server and an ESX host to create compute resources within the cloud.  It provides the ability to define different compute services in the form of vApp’s which can then be published within the vCloud Catalogue.  This also enables the administrator to define different

I am running the admin-track of the cloud labs so will be on-hand to answer any queries

Click on this link to register – register now, as I’m pretty sure this one is going to “sell out” quickly

It’s that time again, if you are in the UK – or anywhere nearby then register and get yourself over to the London VMUG.

I’m not sure if I can make this one, due to work commitments and this will be the 1st VMUG for about a year and a half where I won’t be presenting anything – so it’s safe to come out from behind the sofa!

The Steering Committee are pleased to announce the next UK London VMware User Group meeting, kindly sponsored by Veeam is to be held on Thursday 10th February 2011. We hope to see you at the meeting, and afterwards for a drink or two, courtesy of VMware.

Our meeting will be held at the Thames Suite, London Chamber of Commerce and Industry, 33 Queen Street, London EC4R 1AP, +44 (0)20 7248 4444. The nearest tube station is Mansion House, location information is available here. Reception is from 12.30 for a prompt 1pm start, to finish around 5pm. Our agenda is below and is subject to change (but hopefully not too much!)
 
10.00 – 12.00      Roundtable Strategy Session with Martyn Storey and Mark Stockham; Enterprise Management – optional (spaces limited)
11:00 – 12:00      PowerCLI session with Alan Renouf – optional
 
12:30 – 13:00      Arrive & Refreshments
13:00 – 13:20      Welcome & News (Alaric)
13:20 – 14:00      Sponsor presentation (Veeam Systems)
14:00 – 14:30      VMware Certification – Preparing for Success (Scott Vessey)
14:30 – 15:00      Cheap Disaster Recovery using PowerShell scripts (Gabrie van Zanten http://www.gabesvirtualworld.com/)
15:00 – 15:20      Refreshment break
15:30 – 16:00      Advanced vCenter Alarming and Automation (Simon Long, VMware)
16:00 – 16:30      Transatlantic Datacentre migration (Chris Dearden, JFVI)
16:30 – 16:45      Close
17:00                     Pub
 
Notes:
If you would like to participate in Alan’s workshop, please bring a laptop, preferably with the most current PowerCLI and PowerShell binaries installed.
 
To register your interest in attending, please email londonvmug@yahoo.com with up to two named attendees from your organisation. If you do not receive a confirmation mail, please don’t just turn up since we will not be able to admit you to the meeting. Please separately mention if you intend attending Alan’s PowerCLI workshop at 11.00 or would like to be considered to attend the Enterprise Management roundtable strategy session at 10.00. Content from the meeting will be uploaded to http://www.box.net/londonug, NDA permitting.

Sincerely, and with regards,

The London VMUG Steering Committee