VMUG: Tech Data in Clearwater, FL.

Attended my second VMware User Group Meeting (VMUG) today. The first meeting that I attended was held at the Southwest Florida Water Management District’s office a couple of month back. Today’s meeting was sponsored by Tech Data and held at their Clearwater, FL headquarters.

First up was VMware which gave a presentation of upcoming features in View 4.5. Numerous alpha/beta screenshots were displayed which showcased numerous improvements and new features. We were asked as group not to share the exact features as this is still a work in progress so I will end that there.

Next up was IBM with a more hardware CAPEX/OPEX oriented presentation. Some of the hardware that was discussed was really impressive, things like 2TB of system RAM, blade enclosures, and 1.8″ SSD “flash packs” that cut costs and push IOPS through the roof.

The final presenter Qlogic, was pretty interesting. The presentation included 8Gb FC, fibre channel over ethernet, and 10Gb copper.

After the presentations everyone broke up into groups and went on tours of the Tech Data Solutions Center and then into discussions with each of the three presenters.

See you at the next VMUG.

–Himuraken

VMware User Group Meeting in Tampa, FL

Drove up to Tampa today to attend my first VMUG (VMware User Group) meet-up. The meeting was held at Southwest Florida Water Management District’s Tampa location and was really good. Representatives from SWFLWMD, VMware, EMC, Data Domain, Veeam!, and Symantec were present. The presentations were kicked off by the Senior System Administrator of SWFLWMD which was followed by presentations by VMware, EMC, and Data Domain. Overall the meeting was neat for me because it wasn’t the normal sales pitch / PowerPoint you to death onslaught that is normally standard fair for these type of gatherings. Apparently the Tampa area VMUG meetings are held quarterly. I am going to be attending more of these meetings in the future, it is worth the drive.

–Himuraken