Haven’t registered for VMworld yet? Want to go but can’t afford it? Well Infinio can help get you there. There are giving away a prize package which includes a VMworld full conference pass (a $1995 value). All you have to do is click the banner above and fill out a simple form for your chance to win. They’ll be announcing the lucky winner on 7/22.

After you register you might also spend some time on their site and check out their cool software solution for storage hardware performance problems in a VMware environment. You can get a free trial version and be up and running with their Accelerator solution in under an hour.

So what are you waiting for, go register now and you’ll be entered to win:

• One full-conference pass to VMworld 2014 in San Francisco
• (the conference pass includes access to the VMworld party and Hall Crawl events)
• Access to the VMunderground party
• Cool Infinio swag
• Other great stuff!

Note: The prize includes the conference pass only. The winner will be responsible for their own hotel, airfare, and other expenses.

If you’re already registered for VMworld you can now build your schedule and you better hurry up as sessions on popular topics are filling up fast. There was already a waiting list for the VVols Technical Overview session the same day the schedule builder opened (yesterday). It’s worth getting on the waiting list as hopefully once they see that a session fills up so quick they will change it to a larger room or offer the session again.

There are a total of 491 sessions (and 664 speakers) listed in the session catalog which can make it challenging to find and schedule sessions that you are interested in. I usually search on keywords, speaker names or use the filters on the sidebars (i.e. Advanced Technical)  to focus in on my interests. Searching on storage brings the results down to only 120 sessions. I’ll be speaking this year at an HP session, so if you want to come and see me and learn about 3PAR All-Flash arrays for VMware register for the below session:

• STO2540 – The Perfect Stormage: How All-Flash Storage, Quality-of-Service Controls and Extreme Availability Enables Virtualizing Tier-1 Apps with Confidence

If you want to learn more about the new VVols architecture which you’ll hear a lot about at VMworld, there are at least 13 sessions on it from various storage vendors and VMware. VSAN is still very popular despite being a focal point at VMworld last year, a search on VSAN yields 30 results. Some additional sessions I recommend are below:

• STO1965 – Virtual Volumes Technical Deep Dive (VMware session, Full – get on the waiting list!)
• STO2554 – Zooming In: How VMware Virtual Volumes (vVols) Will Provide Shared Storage with X-ray Vision (HP/VMware session – learn about 3PAR and VVols)
• STO1963 – Virtual Volumes Business Overview (VMware session – the more boring side of VVols but still good)
• BCO1916 – Site Recovery Manager and Stretched Storage: Tech Preview of a New Approach to Active-Active Data Centers (VMware session – BC/DR is changing, learn how)
• MGT1868 – Troubleshooting Storage Devices Using vCenter Operations (VMware/customer session)
• STP3170 – Why Storage and Memory Are Reshaping IT Efficiency (Samsung – deep dive on DDR & SSDs)
• STO2496 – vSphere Storage Best Practices: Next-Gen Storage Technologies (EMC/Pure – don’t miss the Chad & Vaughn show)
• TEX1985 – Lessons Learnt from a Real Life VSAN POC at Trend Micro (VMware/TrendMicro – any session with Cormac is a good one)
• INF1273 – A Technical Deep Dive on Implementing Defense Information Systems Agency’s (DISA) VMware 5 Security Technical Implementation Guide (STIG) for DoD (SAIC – I’m a security geek)
• INF1506 – Extreme Performance Series: vCenter Performance (VMware – sounds interesting)
• VAPP2305 – Extreme Performance Series – Understanding Applications that Require Extra TLC for Better Performance on vSphere – Deep Dive (VMware – sounds interesting)
• TEX1505 – How to Monitor a Virtual Machine Without a Direct Network Connection (VMware – obscure topic but sounds geeky)
• NET2733 – Rack and Roll – Networking Automation and VMware NSX (VMware – not a big networking geek but the title caught my eye)
• INF1552 – SDDC: Buzzword to Reality. Discussions with SDDC Architects that Goes Well Beyond Markitecture (VMware – it takes a lot of people to explain what SDDC is)
• STO2197 – Storage DRS: Deep Dive and Best Practices (VMware – no Frank or Duncan but still might be good)
• INF1601 – Taking Reporting and Command Line Automation to the Next Level with PowerCLI (VMware/customer – you have to see the PowerCLI masters, Alan & Luc)
• MGT1876 – Troubleshooting With vCenter Operations Manager (Live Demo) (VMware – live demos are cool but can go easily go wrong)
• STO3098 – Virtual SAN Best Practices for Monitoring and Troubleshooting (VMware – if you’re going to use VSAN, you better know how to fix it)
• VAPP1340 – Virtualize Active Directory, the Right Way! (VMware/EMC – I spent years supporting AD and virtualizing it)
• VAPP1204 – Virtualizing and Tuning Application Platforms with High Transactional Volume (VMware – sounds interesting)
• SDDC2370 – Introduction to OpenStack for VMware Administrators (VMware – Scott Lowe session, has to be good)

I’m sure there are some more good ones that I’m missing. One thing is for sure trying to schedule all the sessions you like will be a challenge as there tends to be a lot of session time conflicts and then you are forced to choose between 2 (or more) good ones. Have fun scheduling and see you at VMworld!

There has been a ton of content available on VSAN from sources like blogs, videos, KB articles, etc. but surprisingly there have been very few technical papers (none?) from VMware on VSAN unless you want to count the What’s New in VMware VSAN paper that VMware published back in February. Well VMware has just ended their VSAN technical paper drought with a new one entitled “Understanding Data Locality in VMware Virtual SAN“. What is Data Locality you might ask, according to the paper it is:

“In computer science, “data locality”, also known, as ”locality of reference” is the behavior of computer programs according to which a workload accesses a set of data entities or storage locations within some period of time with a predictable access pattern.”

With VSAN what this means is how VSAN makes effective use of it’s caching mechanism. The paper mainly explains how read caching works in VSAN and how you can also combine it with the Content-Based Read Cache that caches from RAM which works with VMware Horizon View. I always like deep dives on technology and this paper gives you a real good understanding of one of VSAN’s best features.

Once you finish reading the paper if you are thirsting for even more VSAN knowledge be sure to check out Duncan & Cormac’s new VSAN book which is available in the Kindle edition today and in paperback form in a month.

If you are involved with VMware technology then going to VMworld is like a kid going to Disneyland. I don’t know of anyone that wouldn’t want to go to VMworld, but unfortunately that requires money and many companies can’t afford to send people as the combination of the conference fee ($1995) and travel can almost cost as much or more than the conference fee especially with the outrageously priced hotels in San Francisco.

Well if you want to go and can’t afford to, SimpliVity might be able to get you there. SimpliVity is giving out TWO free passes to VMworld 2014, and even better each is accompanied by a travel stipend to help cover your travel expenses.  If you are one of the lucky winners, you also will have the choice to attend either VMworld 2014 venue:

San Francisco – Aug 24-28

OR

Barcelona – October 14-16

So even if you are already going to VMworld San Francisco, you could also go to VMworld in lovely Barcelona, Spain. SimpliVity will be announcing winners Friday, July 18th and Friday, July 25th on Twitter so make sure you are following them. Head on over to this page and fill out the simple form for your chance to win!

VMware has historically been pretty controlling and secretive about their beta programs for vSphere and only allowing partners and select customers to participate in it. They’ve recently started to open up though with the VSAN beta that was publicly available 6 months before the product released. Now they have opened up even more with a public beta for the next release of vSphere that includes my favorite new storage feature, Virtual Volumes. Remember VVols? You might have forgotten about it by now with all the attention on VSAN. They have been talking about VVols for years since they first announced it but the feature has never found its way into a version of vSphere.  Remember this from VMworld 2012:

And this from VMworld 2013:

Now VVols is finally coming in this next vSphere release, but before you get excited you need to make sure you have storage that supports the feature and the new VASA provider that it relies on. Chances are you won’t find many (or any) storage arrays that support it today but talk to your storage vendor and they may have their own beta program that you could be part of which will get you the chance to play with it. VMware has a beta page dedicated to VVols and they have HP, Dell and NetApp listed as partners that have beta builds for storage that supports VVols. Read more about the VVols public beta here.

Note that they have not publicly given this next release a version number, the announcement refers to it as vSphere Beta, but I’m sure you can guess to what that might be considering that we are at vSphere 5.5 right now. Of course there are some rules to participating in the beta, pretty much the same rule as the first rule of Fight Club. So head on over to the beta site, sign-up and agree to the NDA and you’ll be enjoying the vSphere beta before you know it. I’m happy to see VVols finally getting some love from VMware and I’m pretty sure you’ll be hearing a lot about it an VMworld this year.

Sign up and join the vSphere Beta Program today at: https://communities.vmware.com/community/vmtn/vsphere-beta

VMware vSphere Beta Program Ground Rules

• You agree to receive program communications (e.g. emails, webinar invitations, contest invitations etc.).
• You agree to use the Beta community for general feedback and questions. For specific issues, log a Support Request for assistance. Requests will receive an acknowledgment within 24 hours, but there is no pre-determined SLA for issue resolution.
• VMware will attempt to respond to feedback, comments, questions and issues posted to the Beta community, but there is no guarantee of a response.
• Your Beta program participation may make you eligible for contests or incentives conducted by VMware to encourage Beta software testing. Details of any contests or incentives will be posted in the private Beta community.
• Any version numbers used in this Beta are placeholders. VMware does not commit to including the features provided in this Beta in any specific released version.

VMware vSphere Beta Program Confidentiality Rules

Once you joined the private Beta Community, you are a trusted advisor, and VMware expects all the participants to treat this Beta Program as strictly confidential. This information shared within the private Beta community is covered under the VMware Master Software Beta Test Agreement that your organization has previously accepted, or that you will accept upon entry into the program.

You may:

• Speak with other participants of the Beta Program about this program
• Post on the protected, private discussion forums
• Speak with your server vendor about this program, so long as you disclose that you are under an NDA and so long as they are also under an NDA with VMware

You may NOT:

• Discuss this program publicly
• Discuss this program privately with any other people not listed above.

When you are recognized as a top blogger you often get noticed by companies looking to hire the best people. Years ago there were many independent top bloggers but over the years many have been snatched up by companies eager to bring on good talent to their team. I was curious to see who the current top bloggers work for so I went through the list of the current top 50 bloggers and trying to identify their employers from twitter, their websites and LinkedIn. Here’s what I found out:

Note: I define independent bloggers as not working for VMware or any hardware/software vendors, independent bloggers are mainly customers or VARs.

The Top 10 bloggers

• VMware – 6
• Independent – 2
• PernixData – 1
• EMC – 1

VMware has snatched up most of the best bloggers, very few independents

The Top 25 bloggers

• Independent – 7
• VMware – 6
• Nutanix – 5
• PernixData – 1
• EMC – 2
• HP – 1
• VCE – 1
• Dell – 1
• NetApp – 1

Nutanix went and scooped up many of the bloggers that are in the top 25, the big storage companies have few top 25 bloggers

The Top 26-50 bloggers

• Independent – 13
• VMware – 5
• Pure Storage – 2
• Nutanix – 1
• PernixData – 1
• HP – 1
• Cisco – 1
• Veeam – 1

Lots of independents here as bloggers are starting to make names for themselves and climbing up the top 50, good number of VMware bloggers as well

The Complete Top 50 bloggers

• Independent – 20
• VMware – 11
• Nutanix – 6
• Pure Storage – 2
• PernixData – 2
• EMC – 2
• HP – 2
• Cisco – 1
• Veeam – 1
• VCE – 1
• Dell – 1
• NetApp – 1

Almost half of the top 50 are Independent bloggers, most of them are in the 26-50 spots, VMware has 9 bloggers in the top 28 spots, Nutanix has the most top bloggers after that

I’ve always been obsessed fascinated with how everything and anything works, I have a very curious mind and it’s never enough for me to simply accept that things work, I need to know how they work as well. I’m always doing deep dive into technologies to get a very thorough understanding exactly what is going on behind the scenes. The benefit of this is twofold, first if I know all the deep details on something, I can speak to it much more effectively if I have to explain it to someone else. This can greatly help when you are doing presentations as the better you know your content, the more effective you will be presenting it. Secondly it helps immensely when troubleshooting something, if you know the inner workings of how something functions you can more easily figure out what is wrong with it or how it can be improved.

As a result I’m starting a series of posts here called Storage Demystified where I will deep dive into all sorts of storage related and vSphere related features and technologies. I’ll also be presenting on this same topic at an upcoming VMUG and for a SpiceWorks webinar so you might be able to see it live. So stay tuned as I’ll be begin posting on my new series very soon, my first topic will be on why and how SSD drives wear out, something that seems to be not very well known but I’ll do my best to explain it to you. If you have anything you’d like to know more about let me know and I’ll try and include it.

Nutanix is hosting an online event called Web-scale Wednesday on 6/25 with a great line-up of speakers. You can watch it live beginning at 9:00am PST or on-demand. Not sure what web-scale means or why it’s trending? Check out this Gartner press release which explains what it is and why it will be in 50 percent of global enterprises by 2017.

They have a good line-up of companies and speakers represented including Twitter, The Register, Veeam, Dell, Citrix and Stu Miniman from Wikibon will also be there.

So click the above image and fill out the short form to register and also snag a free “I was web-scale before it was cool” t-shirt.

Agenda (PDT)
9:00AM-9:30AM Keynote Address
9:30AM-10:00AM Analyst Session: The Coming Disruption to Datacenter Strategies
10:00AM-10:45AM Tech Expert Panel: Designing and Building Web-scale Systems
10:45AM-11:05AM Industry Perspective: Convergence and Web-scale IT
11:05AM-11:30AM Industry Perspective: Rethinking Infrastructure for Web-scale IT
11:05AM-12:00PM TweetUp: Twitter Chat on Web-scale IT, Trends and Impact
11:30AM-12:00PM Enterprise Perspective: Making the Move to Web-Scale