10 VMworld 2021 sessions to add to your agenda
This year's annual VMware user conference has more than 1,200 sessions to dive into. Start to plan your schedule with some of our recommended talks.
Fire up your surround sound speakers, grab some caffeine and settle in for some webinars and virtual networking; it's time again for VMware's annual user conference where you can hear about and delve into the virtualization giant's latest technology.
VMworld 2021 runs from Oct. 5-7 and is virtual again this year. Attendees can choose from sessions in tracks on Multi-Cloud, App Modernization, Security, Networking, Edge, End-User Services and Vision and Innovation. There's also a track titled "Inspire Change," which includes sessions that teach new skills and ways to think about your career, tips on being a better ally in your organizations and how you can help the planet.
In his first VMworld as CEO, Raghu Raghuram's keynote will detail VMware's vision for multi-cloud technology and how the vendor can help customers navigate the overlap of applications and cloud. Beyond the keynote, you can comb through over 1,200 sessions and plan a custom agenda that's filled with product overviews, business practices and technical deep dives. Here's a look at some sessions you shouldn't miss.
1. 10 things you need to know about Project Monterey [MCL1833]
This session details how Project Monterey and SmartNICs redefine the data center with decoupled control and data planes for management, networking, storage and security for VMware ESXi hosts and for bare-metal systems. You'll hear 10 things you must know about Project Monterey to help accelerate your business, including how it helps increase performance, manageability and security for vSphere and bare-metal infrastructure.
Speakers
Sudhanshu Jain, director product management, VMware
Niels Hagoort, staff technical marketing architect, VMware
2. 3 things the pandemic taught us about using multi-cloud successfully [VI3273]
The COVID-19 pandemic revealed IT infrastructure limitations for a lot of companies -- and accelerated any cloud adoption plans to support an at-home workforce. Many IT teams learned that multi-cloud requires planning and time, as well as its benefits and drawbacks during implementation. This session provides insight on how to successfully deploy multi-cloud rapidly, what to avoid and how CloudOps technology can make a difference.
Speaker
David Linthicum, chief cloud strategy officer, Deloitte
3. Running frictionless Kubernetes deployments with Tanzu Kubernetes Grid [APP2726]
More organizations now use Kubernetes to scale and automate container deployments for applications in the cloud, and VMware Tanzu brings these features to vSphere and multi-cloud infrastructure. This session outlines the required technology, processes and skills you'll need to use Kubernetes for multiple clouds. You'll learn how Tanzu Kubernetes Grid can create, upgrade, scale and remove Kubernetes deployments in various clouds and on-premises infrastructure to meet organizational needs.
Speaker
Chris Culpin, senior technical instructor, VMware
4. Deep dive: VM performance and best practices [VI2158]
VM performance is paramount for any type or configuration of virtualized infrastructure. This session provides a technical explanation of VM resource use, how to evaluate the performance indicators with VMware Esxtop and ways to better solve performance issues.
Speaker
Jimmy Arias, staff technical support engineer, VMware
5. 99 problems but a snapshot's not one! [VMTN3281]
Snapshots are useful for VMware admins, but management can get unwieldy with long snapshot chains and IT policies that limit service delivery. This session shows how vROPS can automatically detect abandoned snapshots and commit them to the VM's state, which prevents data loss or performance issues. Presenter Scott Bowe also will demonstrate vROPS automated actions and integrations with vRealize Automation so you can take and clean up snapshots without a problem.
Speaker
Scott Bowe, senior solutions engineer, VMware
6. Deploying VMs and Kubernetes with VMware Cloud Foundation at the edge [EDG1294]
As more organizations adopt edge to decrease latency and improve application performance, these spread-out infrastructure configurations can be tough to manage. This session outlines all the requirements to use VMware Cloud Foundation with VMware Tanzu so you can effectively manage your VMs and containers no matter where they sit -- from a data center to the public cloud or edge.
Speakers
Arif Altalib, director, product management, VMware
Rick Walsworth, group manager product line marketing, VMware
7. 7 key steps to successfully upgrade an NSX-T environment [NET1915]
Upgrades can be tricky, especially because you must take time to ensure every new component will work together. This session covers all the components attached to VMware NSX-T to make sure you don't leave anything out or miss a step. You'll learn ways to validate all the necessary components -- including the hypervisor -- and make NSX-T upgrades a breeze.
Speakers
Nand Kishore Vyas, NSX tech lead, VMware
Sushant Kamboj, senior network virtualization engineer, VMware
Akarsh Mishra, senior network virtualization engineer, VMware
8. Detecting and preventing threats with NSX advanced threat prevention [SEC2208]
Ransomware attacks are something you must always prepare for in your security framework -- especially as infrastructure becomes more distributed and data breaches become more expensive. This session will cover some of NSX's main threat prevention capabilities: intrusion detection and prevention, network traffic analysis and microsegmentation. You'll also see what an advanced attack scenario can look like and what preventative steps you can take with the software.
Speakers
Stijn Vanveerdeghem, senior manager, technical product management, VMware
Barany Mok, staff solution engineer, VMware
Ant Ducker, lead cybersecurity solutions engineer, VMware
9. Knowledge skills assessment: Helping to fill knowledge gaps [IC2513]
Whether you're an IT manager or just an ambitious admin, there are always technical skills to acquire. But that can be tough sometimes if you don't know what skills are out there or might be necessary for the organization. VMware Learning has its own Knowledge Skills Assessment that can help you find the blind spots in your own -- or your team's -- professional development. In this meet-the-expert session, learn about the Knowledge Skills Assessment and what benefits it can bring.
Speaker
Robert King, senior education solutions architect, VMware
10. Extreme performance series: vSphere advanced performance boot camp [MCL2033]
There may be times where you must go beyond the basic vSphere performance settings to ensure maximum application performance. This session covers what resource components to consider, such as network optimization, memory management and the VMware ESXi scheduler. You'll figure out how to locate performance issues and remediate them with tips and tricks from vSphere veterans and VMware internal experts.
Speakers
Mark Achtemichuk, performance specialist, VMware
Valentin Bondzio, senior staff, technical support engineer, VMware
