PlanetVM

A couple of days ago I was informed that next years VMworld Europe will not be in February as usual but will be run immediately after VMworld USA.  I did not post then out of respect to my source.

Just like Gabe, I cannot think of any plus points for this change.  I really cannot understand the reasons; their main competitors both have major events that are run in both the US and Europe.  Citrix run iForum and Microsoft run TechEd,  there are a good few months between the US and the European Events.

So what does this mean,  well those that attended this years European VMworld are well aware of the fact that there was no new information or announcements (not counting the biggest none secret of the Multi-Phone),  both the Keynotes were basically a rehash of the Las Vegas Keynotes, only the Names were changed to protect the innocent.

It will be a interesting conundrum,  Cannes is a week behind the San Fran event, therefore  all the major announcements will be public knowledge, and microscopically dissected by analysts and bloggers.  This means that Europe will be getting news that everybody has already heard.  Who will be getting the big hitters in terms of Presenters and KeyNote speakers, again the US, if a Vendor only has budget in that quarter for a single Solutions Exchange which one will they pay for and attend, Yup you guessed it, the US.  VMworld in the States is the premier conference, Europe has always been a bit if a side show for them.

But the most important question is which Event will the Punters attend.

This should have been published a couple of weeks ago and is really old news but I thought it interesting enough to show.

I have been away for a week and it seems little there has been an invasion of evilness at Palo Alto.

I think that they really need to have a word with their PR/Marketing or Legal Dept.  this sound strong? maybe so, however read on.

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After watching twitter for the last couple of days and seeing the tweets about the Beta.   I had given up on receiving an Invite, so you can image my surprise when this morning I found an email in my inbox from the VMware Certification team, inviting me to register and take the beta exam for the VCP on vSphere 4.  It was interesting to read about the way that VMware conduct their Beta Exam process and that there are a number of rules that apply ONLY to the beta exam these are:

• Every question has to be answered and you cannot return to items
• You don’t get your score when you finish, that comes 6-8 weeks later (more about this later)
• You get 240 minutes to complete the exam
• You still have to pay 30% of the regular exam price
• You only get to take the beta exam once
• You have until July 17th to take the exam

Now the little bit that suprises me here is the 6 to 8 week period for your score report, as the actual exam goes live on the 1st August. So  what this effectively means is that people who take the live exam will know their results and be able to call themselves VCP on vSphere before those who participated in the Beta Exam. :O
That said, I have booked my place on the Beta for the 17th July (the Last day that the Beta Exam is available).

Now I’ve just got to find the time to prepare for it.  For those who are considering the certification, I have inserted the link to the vSphere Exam Blue print.

http://mylearn.vmware.com/lcms/mL_faq/2726/VCPonvSphere4ExamBlueprint.pdf

I will be adding other links to documentation as I find it.

Thanks to Steve Kaplan for finding this:

Now if this was not so close to reality to would be too funny for words.

As you are aware I work in the VDI marketspace and utilize a significant about of  VMware View in my solutions.

These solutions are currently based on VMware View 3.0.1,  but can now be based on wait for it (drum roll please mister musician man) VMware View 3.1. read more »

Veeam Monitor 4.0 is now live on the website here: http://www.veeam.com/vmware-esx-monitoring.html read more »

Many of you are aware of Continuum from the forums, that man can do things with VMDKs and VMX files other can only dream about. read more »

If you listened to the VMTN Roundtable on Wednesday you would have heard that Ed Haletky (Texiwil) and myself are starting a new virtualisation based pod cast.  Note that I said Virtualisation based and not VMware based, this podcast will be vendor agnositic.

With the launch of VMware vSphere in the 21st April and the release of the GA Code today on the 21st May the first topic is rather controversial.

VMware vSphere Licensing - Cost and implications.

As shown above the first one is 7:30 BST on the 26th May, for those on the other side of the pond (2:30pm EDT).  So at the prescribed time and date click on the box above and join us, listen to the panel, join in on chat ask question.   We will not bite.

Now I don’t know if you ever had the chance to demo or try the Virtualization Mobile Manager from Andrew Kutz or not, but Hyper-9 are close to releasing it as a product.

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Duncan Epping of VMware and of Yellow-Bricks fame, has been awarded the VCDX certification, as you can tell by his number he is pretty high up the pecking order,  and that is one funky number to have.

So Congratulations are in order to the Dutch Master.  Well Done sir,  I hope you will still talk to us mere mortals