I want to just say thanks @STLVMUG for the great conference that took place today. We had 300 attendees! David Hill (@davehill99) did a great job as he brought the lunch keynote speaking about the vCloud Hybrid Service offering from VMware.
The technical breakouts that I attended were presented well. I was able to attend one on vCOPS (vCenter Operations Manager), another on vCAC (vCenter Automation Center) and a third on NSX (VMware’s offering into network virtualization). Karl Fultz and Chris McClanahan were the presenters for these three sessions.
Karl presented on vCOPS and vCAC. If you haven’t used vCOPS before, it is a great tool to see what is going on inside of your virtualized infrastructure. Check it out here. I really wanted to see vCAC as it is “supposed” to be replacing vCloud Director (vCD) one day. I currently use vCD where I work and wanted to see if there will be an easy transition to vCAC when the day comes we have to replace it. In my opinion, the jury is still out on it. However, like every piece of software that I have used that is still around, there will also be an update that will add value or be able to replace something. Unfortunately, during the vCAC presentation, Karl’s laptop decided to not cooperate with him and he had to reboot, thus costing demo time to be shrunk. Karl did make it up by answering some questions including one I asked about automation. In the end, Karl was able to smoothly recover and demonstrate vCAC to everyone present.
I believe Chris used the meeting he had with members of my team last week as he presented NSX to us as a possibility for us moving forward. It was very similar conversation and I am excited about this technology. The biggest drawback (my gripe more than anything) for me with the technology, though, is the fact that as someone with Infrastructure background, I now have to continue moving forward with the Infrastructure but now also have to learn the networking and storage. Granted, I don’t mind learning new technology and in my past I was able to be dangerous on Cisco equipment and helped setup NetApp arrays but I can still gripe, can’t I? Anyway, Chris was able to showcase what VMware has done with NSX, which came out of the purchase from Nicira. I am excited about it and I think a fully virtualized data center (IE Software Defined Data Center (SDDC)) is just about upon us. It won’t be long and the old IT standard will be out the door with a new door coming about.
That new door will make IT as a Service real and this is what VMware is pushing. We’ll see what happens, but I do know, life as an IT worker is changing and I must adjust or be left behind. This is what I found attending the STLVMUG and I am not afraid of adjusting but more aware of what it will take to press forward in my career.
Thank you VMUG for allowing me to learn more about VMware’s offering and also being able to network with others in the St. Louis area. I can’t wait until next year to see what type of sessions will be available.
