For a while, I had an item on my to-do list as one of the preparations for VMware Explore US, which was writing a pre-event blog post. Let me start by saying I’m really glad that we are back in Vegas again. Although it’s very hot in august and congested with people just wanting to party, it still has my preference over San Francisco.
The last two in-person years, the conference was held in San Francisco (2019 and 2022). After a couple of years in Las Vegas, it felt like a great new impulse to have the conference back in Moscone, but last year I’m pretty sure that most people longed back to Vegas again. San Francisco is a nice place to visit as a tourist with all sorts of great attractions and sights, but for a tech conference I think SF has too much impact of all the drug zombies walking around. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s awful that those people are homeless and their lives are probably partly destroyed because of drugs. Another aspect of SF I disliked was the disaggregation of the actual event, meeting locations, receptions, parties, networking opportunities, etc. When you are used to Vegas, everything is in walking distance and centered in just one or two hotels (for which you don’t have to leave the building). Also, hotels are cheaper in Vegas, which makes it definitely more appealing to travel towards.
My own session
I’m currently preparing slides and demos for a joined session with Hayden Davis:
Hayden and I will dive into the world of AI and Data Science, how it powers the Autonomous Workspace vision, what use cases we see at customers (including demos) and we’ll talk about some trends and innovations. When it comes to demos, you know that I always try to show the art of the possible. It’s not going to be different this year. I’m working on some demos that will show the synergy between Workspace ONE Intelligence and VMware Horizon (including Horizon NextGen). They will, ones again, blow your mind!
Other session I look forward to
First and foremost, I look forward to the showcase keynotes and innovation keynote. Not just about EUC, but also to see what’s coming in the next 12 months. The first one is the EUC Showcase Keynote, presented by Shankar Iyer. Last year, the VMware Autonomous Workspace was introduced in the same session. As it was a north star, I’m hoping for some announcements which will bring the north star to customers.
Next is the Technology Innovation Showcase Keynote. Last week, during the German UserCon in Frankfurt, Chris Wolf announced he has a new role, focusing on AI. He’s a great speaker and never disappoints when it comes to showing great tech. I’m looking forward hearing what he will be doing.
VMware’s application focus has been strong in the last couple of years, with end-to-end solutions to build, implement, manage, scale, and secure those apps for organizations. With the Aria portfolio, the manage and scale aspect of the apps is covered, and since the portfolio is expanding and innovating, and I’m really interested to see and hear what the Aria future will bring.
Where the EUC Showcase Keynote focuses on the vision, the traditional “What’s new..” session focuses on the details. This session promises to show what VMware has been doing in the last 12 months and what will be released in the coming months.
Last year, Horizon Cloud NextGen was announced as a public beta. In the meantime, it has been GAed including some new integration possibilities. One of those is the possibility to add Horizon on-prem PODs to the service. This will change the Horizon on-prem architecture drastically, as the edge appliance will handle most of the management processes on-prem. The deep dive is absolutely a must-attend session!
Other stuff?
Besides session, I’m absolutely thrilled to meet the VMware community again, but also to represent ITQ at VMware Explore US. We have something really awesome in store, which I will bring with me. Some exclusive ITQ swag that you surely want to have! Keep following both myself as well as ITQ on Twitter, to be the first to hear about it. Also, Frank Denneman, Duncan Epping, and I will bring our podcast kit to record some content for Unexplored Territory, so be on the lookout!
- VMware Explore 2023: Back to Vegas Baby! - July 11, 2023
- My session picks for VMware Explore 2022 in Barcelona - September 27, 2022
- VMware Explore 2022 EUC Recap - September 26, 2022
