Category: VMworld2019 [en]

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VMworld 2019 – Summary

VMworld EMEA took place for the 16th time and already for the 8th time in Barcelona. A new visitor record was set. Over 14,000 visitors came to find out about new products and trends. In the General Sessions, CEO Pat Gelsinger, COO Sanjay Poonen and Ray Farell drew a picture of the corporate strategy. VMware’s vision is becoming increasingly clear: Any cloud, any device, with NSX as the neural system and vSphere as the foundation.

The focus on containers and container orchestration was already apparent last year. So it is no surprise that Kubernetes was one of the main focal points of this VMworld.

Tanzu Mission Control

Tansu (yes, with “S”) in Japanese refers to an antique mobile piece of furniture. A chest or cabinet. Also, in the Swahili language, the term tanzu means “branch” or ” twig”.

https://blogs.vmware.com/cloudnative/2019/08/26/vmware-completes-approach-to-modern-applications/

Project Pacific

One of the most important announcements was Project Pacific. This is nothing less than a complete redesign of the vSphere platform, which should be able to run native Kubernetes workloads in the future. Project Pacific merges the vSphere and Kubernetes platforms. Customers who have already invested in their vSphere infrastructure in the past will be able to leverage this investment to run Kubernetes clusters in the future without making new hardware expenditures.

A deeper look into Project Pacific is outlined on the vSphere Blog entitled “Project Pacific – Technical Overview“.

Acquisitions

VeloCloud

The acquisition of VeloCloud, whose products are now being integrated into the VMware portfolio, was announced back in 2017. VeloCloud connects enterprise sites to a virtual overlay using virtual or physical appliances via broadband uplink or MPLS. Unlike many other over-the-top (OTT) providers, VeloCloud operates a global points-of-presence (PoP) network. Within a region, SD-WAN nodes connect to each other via these PoPs.

AVI-Networks

In June 2019, VMware announced its intention to acquire AVI Networks. VMware is thus closing a gap in its NSX portfolio. With the acquisition of AVI-Networks, enhanced load balancing capabilities can be integrated into NSX-T.

Carbon Black

The acquisition of Carbon Black by VMware was completed shortly before VMworld EMEA 2019. Carbon Black develops cloud native cybersecurity solutions. This technology can now be seamlessly integrated into many VMware products.

Pivotal

The acquisition of Pivotal by VMware has not been completed as of this date. Pivotal was founded as a spinoff of Dell and VMware. Pivotal’s core product is Pivotal Cloud Foundry (PCF), a cloud application platform that enables developers to manage applications instead of infrastructure. Pivotal Cloud Foundry is a container-based open source cloud-native platform promoted by VMware Tanzu.

Pivotal’s solutions will be at the center of VMware’s Tanzu product and service offering, which is designed to help customers develop, run and manage their core applications with Kubernetes.

vSphere7 will be launched later

Many visitors had eagerly awaited the announcement of vSphere 7. However, we still have to wait a few months until the next major release will be released.

VMworld 2020

The next VMworld EMEA is scheduled for November 9th to November 12th 2020 in Barcelona.

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VMworld spotlight – ESXi on ARM

In 2018 at VMworld US Pat Gelsinger and Ray O’Farrell gave an outlook on how Edge and IoT devices could benefit from virtualization. A live demo showed a mission critical application in a wind turbine. So far nothing special – except for the fact that the two ESXi hosts were running on ARM architecture.

Running ESXi on ARM opens a range of new possibilities. For example running it on a Raspberry Pi.

This year at VMworld Europe 2019 ESXi on ARM had a dedicated booth to show what is possible and gave potential use cases with ESXi on ARM architecture.

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VMworld spotlight – Stickers

Bloggers love stickers. It becomes obvious if you take a look at their sticker plastered notebooks.

I don’t know where this tradition comes from. Maybe to cover up boring vendor logos.
Whatever. If you attend VMworld, the best spot to complete your personal sticker collection is the blogging area at VMTN. Within 4 days a pile of stickers, pins and other collectibles will grow in the center of the desk.

This year Kubernetes and Tanzu stickers were most popular, but also VMUG stickers from all over the world. The sticker pile works a bit like a geo cache. You take something out and you put something in (if you have). It’s also a good source for VMUG leaders to supply their local meetings with new stickers.

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VMworld spotlight – Why Barcelona is a good location

There are discussions going on, whether VMworld EMEA should move on to a different city or not. Barcelona has hosted VMworld EMEA since 2012 and in previous years it took place in Copenhagen (DK) and Cannes (F).

Infrastructure

In my opinion Barcelona is a good choice for several reasons. Fist of all it has a large congress center and an international airport which is important for visitors from outside Spain. The city also has an excellent public transport system with buses, metro and trains. During commute hours you don’t have to care about the metro timetable. Trains will depart every 3 to 5 minutes. Tickets are cheap. With a T-10 card you pay about 1 € per ride. Train changes included.

Those who love adventures, may go for a taxi ride. Fasten seat belts and hold on tight! 😉

Accommodation

Barcelona also has a broad offering in accommodation. Depending on your personal preferences (and budget) you can choose from very basic to luxury. There are hotels all over the city in different categories. My personal favorite are small accommodations (hostals) in the inner city. For a fair price you’ll get a simple but clean room. Moreover these hostals are officially licensed by the city tourism board, pay taxes and comply with European security stadards.

Climate

VMworld EMEA takes place in November. While the weather in central and northern Europe at that time is usually cold and rainy, Barcelona offers mild temperatures between 15 and 25 degrees Celsius. Wear a short sleeve shirt and you’re dressed. At night a light jacket is enough to go out. No need for winter boots and down parkas

Food

I admit – food is a matter of taste, but in my opinion Catalunya’s cuisine is superb. Tapas are tasty little bits to share on a table during evening meetings in a restaurant. Seafood is fresh and comes in a big variety.