Disclaimer: I recently attended VMworld 2014 – SF. My flights and accommodation were paid for by myself, however VMware provided me with a free pass to the conference and various bits of swag. There is no requirement for me to blog about any of the content presented and I am not compensated in any way for my time at the event. Some materials presented were discussed under NDA and don’t form part of my blog posts, but could influence future discussions.
Sorry this one’s a bit later than the others, but there’s a bit to get through. I don’t want this to be a transcript of the keynote because, frankly, that wouldn’t be quite as interesting as being there. And it would make for a pretty long read. But, there was some neat dancing, loud music, and interesting graphics on the screens to start.
The keynote starts with Robin Matlock, CMO of VMware, with a brief mention of the quake in Napa. She introduces the topic of change by way of introducing the diversity of the audience. The only constant in our business being change. Believe in what you’re doing.
And then it’s Pat Gelsinger’s (VMware CEO) turn to take the stage. The overall theme is bravery and informed risk taking. The main announcements from Pat were around:
- vCloud Suite 5.8 – check Chris’s write-up on this here.
- vSphere 6 Beta
- vCloud Air – better than vCHS (vee-cheese)
Then Project Marvin was unveiled. You check the links below. Interestingly, the 6 initial hardware partners are Dell, EMC, Fujitsu, Inspur, NetOne and SuperMicro to begin with. Duncan has a pretty excellent summary here.
Pat also discussed vRealize and the VMware / Openstack integration, Simon from El Reg has a good write-up here.
Bill Fathers also presented on cloud and where that’s going for VMware. Excellent sense of humour.
To wrap-up, Carl Eschenbach – President and COO, took the stage for some customer testimonials and general good feelings.
All in all, nothing earth shattering here, although I think EVO is going to be a pretty cool play. 3.5 stars.