Day 2 of VMworld 2019 Europe was a big one ?

In the opening session, VMware’s Executive VP, Ray O’ Farrell discussed the challenges of digital transformation today and for the future. He was joined on stage by various colleagues to highlight how best to take advantage of the modern infrastructure available to us and to emphasize that complex challenges require complex solutions. Several guided technical demonstrations (including new product updates) were categorised into four key areas that help demonstrate the power of the VMware solutions that are now available:

• BUILD AND RUN: Joe Baguley – VP and CTO, EMEA – talked Pivotal, Tanzu Mission Control and why VMware’s Kubernetes offering is the best choice for customer Swisscom.
• CONNECT AND PROTECT: Marcos Hernandez – Chief Technologist, Networking and Security – presented NSX-T Intelligence, Carbon Black Workload for classifying and mitigating any alerts in your environment, and how Deutsche Telekom – powered by VeloCloud – is embracing digital transformation as they transition out of legacy platforms.
• MANAGE: Purnima Padmanabhan – VP Products, Cloud Management Business – highlighted the economic benefits of WaveFront, Magna and CloudHealth, helping to proactively avoid cost overruns on Cloud and providing recommendations for optimisation, such as rightsizing and governance for setting budget policies.
• EXPERIENCE: Shikha Mittal – Director Product Management and Strategy – discussed how, for the first time, end-point security with Carbon Black and end-point management with Workspace ONE can enable a single platform to manage all devices and apps within an organisation. VMware uses this technology, as does customer Migros for whom this technology facilitated a successful bring-your-own-device programme, giving employees easy access to critical apps they need to do their jobs.

It was then over to Greg Lavender – Senior VP and CTO – who affirmed that: “The culture of innovation at VMware is the best I’ve ever experienced, anywhere (and that’s coming from someone who has previously worked at Citigroup, Cisco and Sun Microsystems). We’re better together. Let’s go out and Make Our Mark.”

As if this wasn’t enough to energise and empower attendees for their digital journeys ahead, extreme adventurer, Special Forces serviceman, two times BAFTA winner, best-selling author and Honorary Colonel, Bear Grylls concluded the session with a motivational speech around his tried-and-tested formula to tackle self-doubt and encourage innovation:

• Failure – Embrace failure; it builds resilience.
• Fear – Never run from your fears; use them as motivation.
• Fire – Turn challenges into power; never give up.
• Faith – Have faith in yourself, in others, in a universal force of goodness, because after all… “Everest is just a state of mind”.

To see everything that happened during the General Session watch the livestream replay over at our on-demand video library.

Other showcase keynotes from the day included:

• HCI with John Gilmartin – GM and SVP Hyperconverged Infrastructure – around the theme of futureproofing your infrastructure. How to do so? Unlock the Hybrid Cloud, modernise at your pace and deploy all workloads. Customer and partner advocates from Thales and Datastax attested to increased productivity and competitive edge as a result.
• Multi-Cloud with Joseph Kinsella – VP and CTO, Products and Cloud Health – describing the strategies needed to operate at scale, and how to harness the innovation of AWS, Azure, Google Cloud and others, without exponentially increasing complexity.
• Modern Apps with Craig McLuckie – VP R&D, Cloud Native Apps, Eryn Muetzel – Director Product Management, and James Watters, SVP, Strategy at Pivotal – focusing on making best use of Kubernetes to address the needs of BOTH operators and developers, with an early look at VMware Tanzu Mission Control.
• Intrinsic Security with Shawn Bass – VP and CTO, End User Computing, and Tom Corn, Senior VP – looking at how your VMware infrastructure can turn the tide in cybersecurity and how VMware products you may not have considered for security, are perfectly positioned to support your apps, data and users, and when positioned in conjunction with security products like AppDefense, can provide tremendous value to your security teams.

Other announcement and news from today:

• VMware Expands Reach of VMware Cloud on AWS for Cloud Providers and MSPs with VMware Cloud Director Service
• VMware SD-WAN Delivers a Comprehensive Secure Access Services Edge
• VMware and Microsoft Continue to Partner to Deliver Greater Impact to Customers Across Client, Cloud and Data Initiatives
• VMware Unveils Advanced Technology Offerings, Spotlights Customers and Reinforces Commitment to Tech for Good at VMworld 2019 Europehref=”
• VMware Helps Customers to Achieve Digital Transformation Efforts with the vRealize Suite Hybrid Cloud Management Platform

As well as the main sessions, there was so much for the 13,000+ attendees to do on site. Over 4,369 Hands-On Labs were taken, delegates completed more than 124 exam certifications, and more than 253 people attended 62 Meet the Expert roundtables.  In between all of that, 40,000 coffees and 10,000 beers were consumed.

Those that needed to take a moment to unwind enjoyed a relaxed seating area called the Meadow – sponsored by HP, complete with seed cards to takeaway and grow your own garden. The Solutions Exchange was, of course, a VMworld hot spot- full of exhibitors serving food and cocktails, as well as some special sights such as motorcycles and a racecar!

We’re truly impressed by the number of attendees who’ve shown up to invest in their careers, skills expansion, and professional training and to meet with friends and colleagues across the industry.

Now that another busy day has come to an end, what better way to celebrate than by rocking out at VMfest? The DJ in the main hall, the RJP band, as well as a special performance by the Showman Circus kicked off the night, and the Stereophonics wrapped things up.

That said, it’s not quite over yet… and there’s plenty of ways to participate from home. Take one of our Hands-On Labs to try out the products you’ve always wanted to test. Watch our all of our replays available on-demand. And of course, join the conversation online using #VMworld!

Category: News & Highlights

Tags: