My Video Interview at VMware PEX

Posted on 31 March 2015 by GeekFluent

While I was at the VMware Partner Exchange conference in February, I had the pleasure of running into Josh Atwell. Josh asked if I wanted to be interviewed in the SolidFire booth. Naturally, I said yes, and asked what aspects of their product they’d like me to talk about.

To my mild surprise, they didn’t necessarily want me to talk about SolidFire particularly, but instead on storage in general. The specific topic question was “What would be possible if storage wasn’t a barrier?”

I took a moment to think about some of my customers and had my answer. The video of the interview is below: Continue reading →

EMC Enters Hyperconverged Infrastructure Market with VSPEX Blue

Posted on 3 February 2015 by GeekFluent

Today EMC announced their entrance into the hyperconverged infrastructure space with a new product named VSPEX Blue. The product is based on the EVO:Rail configurations supported by VMware. The EVO:Rail specifications were announced at VMworld 2014. At that time, only a few hardware vendors had EVO:Rail offerings. More have come since then, with EMC being the latest.

I’ll walk through VSPEX Blue below. Continue reading →

GeekFluent Round-up of VMware Announcements from Monday of Partner Exchange

Posted on 3 February 2015 by GeekFluent

I’m at the VMware Partner Exchange conference now. The pre-conference boot camps have finished up, and the “main” conference is starting. As part of the pre-conference events, VMware made several product announcements, including:

vSphere 6.0
vCloud Air Hybrid Cloud Extensions
VMware Integrated OpenStack (VIO)
VSAN 6.0

I’ll give an overview of each below. Continue reading →

Headed to VMware Partner Exchange (#VMwarePEX)

Posted on 29 January 2015 by GeekFluent

In less than 48 hours, I’ll be boarding a plane to San Francisco to attend this year’s VMware Partner Exchange (PEX) conference. PEX is a VMware partner-only conference that’s always been a great learning and networking experience for me. Almost all of the vendors my company partners with will be there, too.

If you’re going to PEX and would like to meet in person, please reach out to me (either in comments here, or via email or Twitter). The chance to interact face-to-face with folks I normally only see online is one of the things that make these conferences so rewarding.

A rough idea of some of my schedule is below: Continue reading →

Evolution of Virtualization – The Whiteboard Video

Posted on 24 April 2013 by GeekFluent

I posted before about having fun with whiteboards at VMware PEX, and I posted the draft outline for the “Evolution of Virtualization” whiteboard I did with Gabriel Chapman (@Bacon_Is_King).

Today, Amy Lewis (@CommsNinja) has posted the final version of the video we recorded. I have to say, the editing makes it look very professional.

For me, improving efficiency and gaining flexibility have always been the driving forces behind virtualization. Continue reading →

The Evolution of Virtualization — Draft Outline

Posted on 17 April 2013 by GeekFluent

I’ve already written about the Magic Balloon episode of Engineers Unplugged I recorded at VMware PEX, but that wasn’t the topic I was originally invited to record.

The topic I was originally asked to speak to was “The Evolution of Virtualization”. I was paired with Gabriel Chapman (@Bacon_Is_King), who I’d only known online up until that point. As I understand it, that episode will be published next week.

In the meantime, I thought I’d share our thought process — what went into preparation for the episode. Continue reading →

Magic Balloon: A Whiteboarding Creativity Game/Exercise

Posted on 3 April 2013 by GeekFluent

Anybody who knows me knows how much I love whiteboards. When I run into a fellow whiteboard enthusiast, at some point I end up asking if they know Magic Balloon.

Magic Balloon is a brainstorming-style creativity exercise in the form of a game played on a whiteboard. I originally learned about Magic Balloon in college when my friend Nat taught it to me. It’s a fun game to play with your kids or with your crazy friends. It’s also a great exercise for helping folks who think they aren’t creative or who find themselves unsure what to do with the big empty space of a freshly-erased whiteboard. Continue reading →

Off to VMware Partner Exchange…

Posted on 21 February 2013 by GeekFluent

Next week, I’ll be in Las Vegas for VMware Partner Exchange (PEX) 2013. This is a conference where VMware focuses on their partners. It’ll be a great chance for me to hear VMware’s plans for the next year first-hand, and meet with a lot of VMware’s and my partners.

This will be my third Partner Exchange, but my first as an actual attendee. In 2011 and 2012, I was working at the conference. In 2011, I presented in the EMC Partner boot camp session and then worked in the EMC booth in the Solutions Exchange giving demos on the then-new EMC VNXe. In 2012, I was responsible for running EMC’s booth in the Solutions Exchange.

This year, however, Continue reading →

2012: The GeekFluent Year in Review

Posted on 31 December 2012 by GeekFluent

I’ve been thinking that I really need to be taking a more deliberate approach to this blog and make sure I’m posting more regularly. Looking around, all of the big names in blogging seem to put out a year-end post. They tend to fall into one of two categories:

The Top Ten (or Five) <Things in a Specific Category> of 2012
My Top Five (or Ten) <Specific Category> Predictions for 2013

I thought about doing one or the other (or even both) of these styles of posts, but anything I thought to do seemed like a retread of other things already out there. Others got there before me, and, quite frankly, I don’t have anything new or original to add at the moment.

So, Dear Reader, instead, I’ll be bringing you the 2012 GeekFluent Year in Review. Continue reading →

GeekFluent

Have Whiteboard, Will Translate

Tag Archives: VMwarePEX