Presenting at the Dutch NLVMUG UserCon 2018
Update: my slidedeck:
I’m very honored and proud to be speaking at the Dutch NLVMUG UserCon 2018 on March 20th. In the last few years I have been speaking at numerous events but funny enough, this is my very first appearance at a VMUG. Last year I really wanted to present at the UserCon but I was in the middle of finalizing my VCDX application. This year, the UserCon was top of my list and thankfully, there is lots of interesting VMware cloud-related stuff to talk about. I will be doing a solo presentation about the awesome new VMware Cloud on AWS service and I will be co-hosting an interactive session with my colleague Vincent van Vierzen on VMware Validated Designs. Finally, I will be joining fellow VCDX’es Marco van Baggum and Johan van Amersfoort in the VCDX workshop which we will be running on the Pre-Con day on March 19th. It’s going to be very, very busy UserCon and I’m really excited. If you are attending the UserCon, make sure to mark my sessions on your agenda 😉
Oh, and it’s pretty cool to be on a speakers list together with Pat Gelsinger – CEO, VMware and Joshua McKenty – Field CTO, Pivotal Cloud Foundry.
VMware Cloud on AWS
14:00 – 14:45 Kick-start your Cloud Journey with VMware Cloud on AWS
Creating a hybrid cloud environment is very complex. Native clouds are inherently incompatible with your on-premises VMware data centers. Learn how you can leverage VMware Cloud on AWS to kick-start your cloud journey and create a best of both worlds solution for your business.
I’m really, really excited about VMware Cloud on AWS (VMC). When Frank Denneman talked about this new service in his keynote at last years UserCon, most people were very excited but there also was quite a bit of skepticism with people I talked to at the UserCon. Especially people who were already familiar with using native AWS services were afraid VMC would be nothing more than a vSphere bubble in an AWS data center, so why bother? I think VMware and AWS have really delivered a unique cloud service that tightly and deeply integrates the VMware SDDC vision with native AWS services.
I see a lot of my customers struggling with their cloud strategy and its execution. I think one of the biggest problems is the inherent inconsistency and incompatibility between an on-premises VMware SDDC and a native cloud environment such as AWS or Azure. In my presentation, I will explore this problem to a deeper level and explain how I see a perfect solution with VMware Cloud on AWS for VMware customers looking to embark on a cloud journey. I will also take the audience through the why, what and how of the new service at a technical level. Hopefully, I will even be able to include some demos in my presentation.
VMware Validated Designs
15:30 – 16:15 The why, what and how of VMware Validated Designs
Based on a large scale production deployment of a VMware Validated Design for SDDC, you will learn why our customer chose a VVD deployment over a traditional, custom design & deploy service. Together, we will interactively explore the VVD architecture and its extensive documentation set. Finally, you will learn how to practically use the VVD in your own deployments by discussing different use cases.
I’ve been involved with an SDDC design & deploy engagement, together with my colleague Vincent van Vierzen. Instead of taking a traditional ‘custom/do it yourself’ approach of designing the SDDC from the ground up, together with the customer we decided to leverage the VMware Validated Designs (VVD) for SDDC. The customer was already invested in a specific hardware solution so VMware Cloud Foundation wasn’t possible. The next best alternative is using the VVD. Using the VVD has helped enormously in our project and there is real added value for the customer. In an interactive group discussion/workshop, we will be exploring the huge documentation set provided by VMware and we will explain how we leveraged the VVD in our project, discuss how it helped us, what parts still needed some design considerations and so on. We really want to make this as interactive as possible so if you already have specific questions on the VVD and its practical use, let us know!
VCDX workshop
Pre-con 13:00 – 17:00 VCDX Workshop
The VCDX Workshop, also held throughout 2015-2016 and now in 2017 at specific VMUG events, gives you a chance to learn more about the process and program.
As you might know, I passed my VCDX-DCV in May 2017 and I’m very proud to be hosting the VCDX workshop together with my colleagues and fellow VCDX’es Marco and Johan. I’m currently not in a position time-wise to take on VCDX mentorship right now so this feels like a great opportunity to give back a little to the community. I hope I can help any aspiring VCDX on his or her journey with this workshop. Even if you are not actively pursuing VCDX, this is most definitely worth your while if you are a VMware architect, engineer or consultant involved in VMware related design & deploy projects. Make sure to register at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/vcdx-workshop-the-netherlands-tickets-40095348266 free of charge.