At the first of February 2017, I signed a contract at ITQ for a position in the End-User Computing team. During the contract conversation with Paul Geerlings, our CTO, he talked about some of the advantages when working at ITQ. One of those advantages is the annual VMworld congress in Europe.
In my nine years of working experience, I was never been able to go to such a big congress (outside the Netherlands). So this year will be my first big congress ever and a great one to start with. A couple weeks ago, the Content Catalog was published and the registrations for the sessions will start upcoming week. I’m newbie at the event, but also in the VMware products (as I have worked with Citrix Technology for a really long time). Because of this I will attend some sessions with the focus on the VMware EUC Portfolio, but also the primary layer like vSphere and it’s components.
Here is an overview of the break-out sessions, group discussions and labs that drew my attention.
Breakout Sessions
1. An Insider’s View into Windows 10 Management with VMware AirWatch: A Technical Deep Dive
Traditional approaches to Windows management are expensive, complex for IT organizations, and restrictive for users. Windows 10 changes what’s possible for users, for IT departments, and for businesses, including how devices can be managed with a modern mobile device management APIs, how updates occur, and more. We will provide a technical deep dive into some of the many changes and enhancements that have been added to Windows 10, such as enrollment, application delivery, and patch management. In addition, we will compare traditional PC lifecycle management solutions to managing a Windows 10 computer using VMware AirWatch, and the resulting lower costs, greater security, and improved end-user experience.
Day: Tuesday, Sep 12
Why this session? Windows 10 in comparison with Windows 7 asks more resources from the (virtual) hardware. With this deep dive session, I hope to see some do’s and don’ts and how to achieve the lower cost, better security and improved user experience (performance)?
2. Automating Horizon 7.x Deployments with VMware Cloud Foundation
A major focus for VMware Cloud Foundation is the automation of the deployment and maintenance of the backend infrastructure for the VMware Horizon virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI). This session covers the built-in automation of the deployment of VMware vSphere, VMware NSX, VMware vSAN, VMware vRealize, and VMware Horizon components that VMware Cloud Foundation offers. It will also describe the integration of VMware App Volumes in this infrastructure and the ability to dynamically build this infrastructure with the growth of your desktops, resulting in turnkey VDI deployment. All you need to bring are the desktop images.
Day: Thursday, Sep 14
Why this session? Slowly Virtual Machines/Desktops are moving to the Cloud (DaaS). In this session I hope to see how you can automate all processes to deploy a fully VMware Horizon infrastructure in the Cloud and what does it take to get familiar with all the necessary VMware products.
3. Be a Power Admin: VMware AirWatch Console Tips and Tricks
Using the power of analytics and intelligent insights, we’ve been able to do some incredible things in the VMware AirWatch console to further streamline and automate the admin experience. In this session, we will explore the new capabilities and how they can help IT organizations transform their daily operations.
Day: Wednesday, Sep 13
Why this session? In the VMware AirWatch Bootcamp course I have seen the VMware AirWatch Console for the first time. In the near future, during projects, it will give me more practical hands-on experience with the VMware AirWatch Console. This session will probably give me some benefits to get the most out of the Console.
4. Best Practices for All-Flash Arrays with VMware vSphere
All-flash arrays are now commonplace in today’s data centers, and understanding how to configure and manage VMware vSphere to take advantage of them, in both performance and capacity, is critical. The concept of all-flash and, in particular data reduction, changes how some traditional options inside of VMware ESXi should be considered. Topics such as queuing, space reclamation, Storage I/O Control, VMware vSphere Storage DRS, VMware vSphere VMFS 6, virtual disk choice, multipathing, quality of service, and more will discussed.
Day: Thursday, Sep 14
Why this session? Rapid storage like 3D NAND flash, PCIe/NVMe, and NVDIMM, becomes cheaper and cheaper. For most companies the slower storage becomes a bottleneck in their infrastructure. This is the time to move to faster storage like an All-Flash Array solution in the VMware vSphere environment. I am curious about the VMware’s perspective, what are the best-practices and what are possible pitfalls.
5. Delivering Virtual Desktops and Apps via the Digital Workspace with Workspace ONE and VMware Horizon
In this session, we will demonstrate how you can integrate VMware Horizon with VMware Workspace ONE to deliver virtual desktops and apps via a digital workspace. We will cover the technical components needed and how they plug together to deliver a simple and secure way for users to access their applications. We will cover the specific configuration information and design considerations to enable fast access and single sign-on to Horizon 7 virtual desktops and published applications from Workspace ONE. Finally, you will see how users can access VMware Horizon resources from Workspace ONE as we demo the user experience and key features.
Day: Thursday, Sep 14
Why this session? As part of an end-user computing team with a main focus on the VMware suite, I would like to know more about the integration and/or co-operation between VMware Horizon and Workspace ONE, so you get the best of both products. An example of an good integration in the meaning of a demo is great. Also, as ITQ is represented in this session by Johan van Amersfoort, it is great to see a fellow ITQ EUC specialist present about Workspace ONE.
Group Discussions
6. CTOs perspective on the Workspace 2020 and beyond: time to act now!
It’s time for radical changes in your workspace strategy, time is now to think about Workspace of 2020 and beyond. Two End-User Computing experts, CTO’s and vExperts, Benny Tritsch and Ruben Spruijt, give their insights and unbiased opinion on the Workspace 2020 and beyond. They explain what workspace developments mean for your organization, users, and workspace strategy. Controversial topics will be evaluated. This session gives you tons of creative food for thought for tomorrow’s Workspace, including: industry survey results, future roadmap, insights and discussion on Workspace 2020 and beyond. Is your Workspace ready for 2020 and beyond? Join the must attend VMworld session to be ready!
Day: Wednesday, Sep 13
Why this session? Within this group discussion I would like to know what the future brings in term of techniques, but also what I personally need to move forward to. It would be nice to know what the expert’s perspective is. Such as: when will be the moment to move to a DaaS solution?
7. Endpoint Security and Endpoint Management with VMware
Discover how VMware endpoint security solutions can help IT operations and security teams get complete visibility over millions of endpoints in 15 seconds or less. You’ll learn how VMware allows security and IT teams to take action necessary to secure and gain control of assets in any environment. In this session, we will provide a demonstration and show you examples of VMware endpoint security solutions in an IT Ops and security context. Join the group discussion to meet the experts and learn more about VMware endpoint security solutions.
Day: Tuesday, Sep 12
Why this session? Security has always been something that drew my attention. Most companies know it is important, but in many cases it is challenging for them to comply to strict security policies. Endpoint protection mechanisms makes your environment perform slower and work inefficient. In this group discussion I hope to learn more about better techniques on the VMware platform.
Hands On Lab Self-Paced Lab
8. Secure Horizon with NSX
There are new and exciting ways to secure your Horizon environment. Secure the end point with an identity-based dynamic firewall such as Trend Micro Deep Security to secure the desktop. These skills can apply to Health Care, Aerospace, Manufacturing, Telecom, and Retail among others.
Why this lab? NSX integration with Horizon is completely new for me and with this lab I hope to get familiar with the interface. Also it is good to learn what the basic steps are to get a secure VMware Horizon environment.
9. vSAN v6.6 – Challenge Lab
vSAN is “radically simple” to setup and get going, but how about configuring it for advanced use cases or troubleshooting performance and availability issues? You will be challenged to scale-out a vSAN cluster and to recover from misconfiguration issues, learn how to troubleshoot VSAN, and restore it to full health.
Why this lab? Like the description says, setting up a vSAN cluster is radically simple, but troubleshooting requires another level of approach. In this lab I hope to get to know what the pitfalls are when using vSAN.
