I previously wrote about my recommendations on vRealize Automation sessions at VMworld US 2017, now it’s time for the en-vogue product everyone is willing to try called VMware Cloud on AWS.
VMware Cloud on AWS is scheduled to be general available this summer, so as expected there are plenty of breakout sessions to choose from. VMware announced the product last year at VMworld Europe and I remember how all the formerly secret sessions suddenly were “sold out”. I attended a session led by Frank Denneman (you will see two of his sessions listed below) and I was super impressed by his enthusiasm. Former Senior Technical Marketing Architect at VMware, specialized in DRS, vMotion and Fault Tolerance, he joined few years PernixData (up to Chief Technologist), to come back late 2016 at VMware to work on an unknown technology. He did signed up on blanc, without knowing what is this about. That technology was indeed VMware Cloud on AWS. Since last VMworld, we have seen demos and found more data on the product, but I’m really waiting for this year sessions and to finally have some hands on with the product.
Without further due, here is my list of recommendations for VMworld US 2017, 27-31 August, Mandalay Bay Hotel & Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada:
Creating Your VMware Cloud on AWS Data Center: VMware Cloud on AWS Fundamentals [LHC1547BU]
Matt Dreyer, Director Product Management, and Oren Root, Sr. Product Line Manager, both at VMware, will give you an overview of the product. If you want to get the fundamentals and you are an enterprise architect or a senior IT decision-maker, this is the session for you.
Managing Your Hybrid Cloud with VMware Cloud on AWS [LHC2971BU]
Two great presenters for this session: Frank Denneman, Senior Staff Architect, VMware and Emad Younis, Sr. Technical Marketing Engineer, VMware. Frank is VCDX #29 and is blogging at frankdenneman.nl. Emad is part of vBrownBag team and is blogging at emadyounis.com. This session will help us to prepare current on-premises vSphere environment for VMware Cloud on AWS integration. From official presentation: “We’ll cover how the hybrid cloud model will enhance your current management tools used in day to day operations, these include content library, the vCenter Server Appliance, and more”.
VMware Cloud on AWS: A Technical Deep Dive [LHC2384BU]
Next session is a technical deep dive presented by the same Frank Denneman and Ray Budavari, Senior Staff Technical Product Manager, VMware. Official presentation doesn’t say much “This session will take a closer look at key features of VMware Cloud on AWS, such as elastic cluster and networking functionality (VMware NSX).” In a blog post, Frank revealed few more details about the session: “For the first time, we are allowed to uncover details about the host configuration, the vSAN infrastructure and of course network topology. We explore advanced features such as Elastic DRS and Autoremediation HA. The last 15 minutes of our session allows you to ask questions about VMC”.
AWS Native Services Integration with VMware Cloud on AWS: Technical Deep Dive [LHC3376BUS]
Let’s spend a little more time on deep dives with Paul Bockelman, Principal Solutions Architect, and Haider Witwit, Senior Solutions Architect, both coming from AWS. VMware Cloud on AWS is not only about running vSphere on AWS owned hardware, but it’s also about consuming native AWS services inside the VMs hosted on such hardware. From official presentation: “This session dives deep into the hybrid architecture with VMware service endpoints, and design tips on how to integrate with native AWS services. We will also show product demonstration of VM guests running on VMware SDDC accessing native AWS services”.
Intriguing Integrations with VMware Cloud on AWS, EC2, S3, Lambda, and More [LHC2281BU]
Here is another session on integrating native AWS services into our environment. Brian Graf, Senior Technical Marketing Manager, VMware, and Matt Dreyer will show us how we can leverage native AWS services like EC2, RDS, S3 or Lambda. Brian is active on Twitter and is blogging at www.brianjgraf.com.
VMware Cloud on AWS: Storage Deep Dive [STO1890BU]
In this session presented by Ben Meadowcroft, Product Line Manager, and Matthew Amdur, Principal Engineer, both at VMware, we will learn about available storage options, we’ll see how we can manage storage and we’ll find the differences from datacenter environment. From official presentation: “This session will provide details of the VMware and Amazon Web Services (AWS) building blocks of the solution and how these pieces fit together. You will find out how vSAN plays a critical role in delivering the full capabilities of the software-defined data center to the public cloud with AWS”.
VMware Cloud for AWS Storage and Availability: Keeping Your Bits Safe for Humanity [LHC1755BU]
Ben Meadowcroft is returning for one more session on storage and availability, co-presented with Alex Jauch, Senior Product Line Manager, VMware. I saw Alex presenting about VMware Cloud on AWS at last VMworld in Barcelona, I’m expecting a good session here too. From official presentation: “… we will discuss the implementation details and future roadmap of storage and availability features inside the VMware Cloud for AWS service. This technical session will include demonstrations and a deep architecture review of VMware Cloud for AWS”.
Manage, Govern, and Extend VMware Cloud on AWS with vRealize Automation [MGT2875BU]
You know I love vRealize Automation, so I couldn’t miss this session. Brian Graf and Jad El-Zein, Principal Architect, VMware, are probably the most qualified persons to talk about integration between the two products. Jad is blogging on one of the best blogs on vRealize Automation: virtualjad.com. From official presentation: “Join this breakout to discover how VMware vRealize Automation adds service authoring and delivery, governance, lifecycle management, and enterprise extensibility to your VMware Cloud on AWS service”.
VMware Cloud for AWS and the Art of Software-Defined Data Centers: API, CLI, and PowerShell [LHC1748BU]
My final recommendation is all about automation and API. Alan Renouf, Senior Product Line Manager, VMware, and Alex Jauch. will show us “how we can enable your automation goals through our representational state transfer (RESTful) API, along with our CLI and PowerShell integrations”. Alan is one of the best resource when talking about API, CLI or SDK, author and maintainer of vCheck scripts collection and normally blogging at www.virtu-al.net.
