Played in with a string band and an impressive VR demo taking over the huge screens, Senior Vice President and General Manager for EMEA, Jean-Pierre Brulard, hit the stage to share an overview of the what’s in store for attendees over the next couple of days at VMworld.

And the first General Session has started! Learn how we're shaping the future, together. #VMworld pic.twitter.com/nq8iDmPGLs

— VMworld (@VMworld) September 12, 2017

In his usual thought-provoking style, VMware CEO, Pat Gelsinger, kicked off today’s keynote with a reflection on the decreasing timeframe in which technology can go from the mind-blowing to the mundane. Throughout his presentation, he placed current technological innovations in the context of major societal and workforce changes (such as how agricultural jobs have plummeted from 80% to 2% of the US’s workforce in just 200 years). The challenge of continually transforming business processes and delivering exceptional customer experiences relies on us all seeking to be pioneers and game-changers.

The other constant in the keynote was the real-world impact on VMware’s customers. Pat (along with Sanjay Poonen, VMware’s COO, Customer Operations), was joined on stage with organisations who we have helped deliver incredible innovations, such as Swisscom and Node Africa.

Pat was also joined by David Kenny, SVP IBM and Cloud Platform, to discuss the relationship between IBM and VMware (and now Dell EMC) – a fantastic example of how our ground-breaking partnerships are enabling customers to create ever more agile IT environments.

Drawing on themes from our four strategic IT priorities: Modernise Data Centers, Integrate Public Clouds, Empower the Digital Workspace and Transform Security, Pat made the following key solution announcements:

• The expansion of VMware’s Mobile Security Alliance to provide a secure and flexible Digital Workspace

With security solutions from MSA partners and Workspace ONE, customers benefit from a modern security platform that protects against targeted threats across devices, users, apps, and data; both in the cloud and on-premises.

• Speeding customer time to value for SDDC and multi-cloud management with new vRealize Suite 2017

We will be making multi-cloud management simpler and more efficient with a series of updates to VMware vRealize® Suite. You can read more detail on this here.

• The expansion of Cloud Provider offerings

We’re also unveiling new innovations to help VMware Cloud Provider partners expand service offerings to drive revenue and growth. As part of this, Pat touched on VMware’s new HCX technology, that enables application mobility at scale, connecting on-premise environment to cloud environments.

• Accelerating the path to OpenStack for Network Functions Virtualization

VMware vCloud NFV OpenStack Edition will help customers get up and running with the fastest path to production deployment of OpenStack. Find out more about this here.

Missed the action of the live stream? Watch the replay here.

Read Jean-Pierre’s Twitter summary of all the action, announcements and key discussion points from Day One:

And the first General Session has started! Learn how we're shaping the future, together. #VMworld pic.twitter.com/nq8iDmPGLs

— VMworld (@VMworld) September 12, 2017

Category: Business, VMworld

Tags: Brulard, Keynote, Pat Gelsinger, VMworld 17, VMworld Europe