The general session is always a favourite of mine at VMware Explore because it gives such great insight into what the vision of VMware is, what the focus is for the organisation and of course, there is always some great announcements thrown in for good measure.
Check out the video below to hear my thoughts and what my key take aways were from the session this year.
Check out my Tech Snapshots that highlight some of the key statistics and messages from the session.
Check out more of my thoughts from the VMware Explore 2023 general session at the blog post below
Broadcom’s CEO takes stage during VMware Explore ‘23 General Session and more - Video — Tech Doodles
As I walk the familiar grounds of VMware Explore, it feels like an annual pilgrimage—a chance to reconvene with the vibrant community that VMware has nurtured over the years. This gathering is more than just a conference; it's a barometer for the industry, reflecting the currents and undercurrents of the IT world.
Year after year, VMware stands out for its ability to bring together a legion of technical professionals and enthusiasts. It’s not just about showcasing their innovations; it’s a broader conversation about the future of our industry. From the General Session to the exhibition floor, every aspect is a peek into what lies ahead.
Many of my customer conversations echo a common theme: the ongoing cloud journey. For some, it's about taking those initial steps towards cloud adoption; for others, it's about optimization, squeezing every ounce of efficiency out of their cloud investments. Then, there are those looking towards AI to catapult their businesses to new heights of productivity.
The modern workspace is evolving. No longer are users expected to adapt to technology; the technology must be intuitive and supportive of their needs. With giants like Microsoft investing in tools like co-pilot and innovations in the space, I’m keen to see VMware’s take on enhancing user experience and productivity in the workplace.
Security remains a paramount concern, with data becoming increasingly fragmented and attack vectors growing more sophisticated. It's a complex landscape, and VMware has historically been a beacon of stability here. I'm eager to discover how they continue to navigate and lead in this crucial area.
This year's VMware Explore comes at a time of uncertainty for the company, with the pending acquisition by Broadcom casting a long shadow over the proceedings. While this may limit the revelations we can expect, it's a poignant reminder of the ever-changing nature of the tech landscape. My thoughts are with the VMware employees awaiting clarity on what this transition means for them. VMware has been a cornerstone of stability for so many of us in the tech community, and this acquisition marks a significant shift.
The acquisition's timing is unfortunate, as it curtails the potential for certain discussions at VMware Explore. There’s a sense of a missed opportunity to delve deeper into what the future holds under Broadcom’s stewardship. Yet, we must navigate these changes as they come, with patience and a keen eye on the horizon.
Despite these uncertainties, my enthusiasm for the conference remains undiminished. I'm looking forward to the announcements, the insights shared on the main stage, and, most importantly, reconnecting with community peers and the array of organizations that contribute to the richness of VMware Explore.
As the conference unfolds, I will capture key moments and insights through my Tech Doodles. Stay tuned for updates and reflections on the latest from VMware Explore, as we collectively steer through these transformative times.
I'm gearing up for an exciting adventure at VMware Explore 2023 in sunny Barcelona, and I can't wait to share what's in store this week. The event is right around the corner, and I'm getting ready to dive into a world of tech innovation.
As I prepare for the event, I'm already feeling the buzz of anticipation. Meeting familiar faces in the community area is just the start of what promises to be an engaging and exciting week.
But what excites is the lineup of sessions, especially those that explore the collaboration between VMware and Microsoft. These industry giants are poised to reshape the way businesses operate and how users engage with technology.
I'm particularly looking forward to the EUC keynote session. Each year, it's where I gain insights into VMware's efforts to enhance the employee experience in the tech-driven workplace.
I'll be your tech scout on the ground, providing real-time updates through blogs, vlogs, and tech snapshots. I'll capture key statistics and inspiring quotes from the sessions, so you won't miss a beat.
Stay connected with me on Twitter at @biztechmeg and keep an eye on techdoodles.co.uk for all the updates and insights.
In today's rapidly evolving digital landscape, data protection and security have become paramount concerns for organisations worldwide. Cyber threats are growing in sophistication, and traditional reactive approaches are no longer sufficient. That's why we are thrilled to present our latest video, which delves into the groundbreaking announcements from Commvault's recent event, "Accelerating Cyber Defence and Response with Next Generation Data Protection."
During the event, we explored how Commvault is revolutionising the field of data protection and security. Our video uncovers the powerful features and innovative solutions that make Commvault a leader in the industry.
CEO Sanjay Mirchandani's Keynote: Sanjay discussed the dual implications of AI, the blurring boundaries between data protection and security, and the vital importance of swift recovery. Commvault's proactive approach ensures that their platform acts as an active shield against potential cyber threats.
Advanced Features: We dive into the technical aspects of Commvault's innovative protection and security solutions. From the centralised Cloud Command dashboard to Risk Analysis, Threat Scan, Auto Recovery, and Threatwise Advisor, Commvault offers an all-in-one solution that simplifies management, secures sensitive data, and enhances recovery readiness.
CISO Panel Discussion: We also highlight the engaging panel discussion hosted by Steve Preston, featuring industry experts who share insights on the critical role of the CISO, the AI threat, and the changing face of risk in the age of COVID-19.
To learn more about these exciting announcements and gain deeper insights into Commvault's next-gen solutions, we invite you to read our detailed blog post on TechDoodles.co.uk. There, you'll find our TechDoodles capturing key points, thoughts, and additional information about the event.
In this ever-evolving digital landscape, it's crucial to stay ahead of the curve regarding data protection and security. Commvault's innovative approach and proactive solutions are setting new industry standards.
In today's cloud age, with data fragmenting and IT resources becoming increasingly strained, cyber threats are a growing concern for all organisations. While traditional data protection measures remain vital, they often feel reactive rather than proactive. Commvault, however, is shifting this narrative, developing a dynamic, proactive defence against cyber threats.
What impresses me about Commvault's strategy, particularly compared to other vendors, is their blend of data protection and security. By merging these two key aspects, Commvault's platform evolves from a 'last resort' recovery solution to an active shield against potential cyber threats.
This approach was discussed during Commvault's recent online event, "Accelerating Cyber Defence and Response with Next Generation Data Protection". CEO, Sanjay Mirchandani, outlined several thought-provoking points that underline Commvault's proactive and integrated approach to cyber defence:
The dual implications of AI, arming both defenders and adversaries with advanced tools.
The complexity and vulnerabilities of using various tools to protect cloud data.
The blurring of boundaries between data protection and security necessitates a unified approach.
Commvault are taking security capabilities used in production directly into their protection platform.
The vital importance of swift recovery, helping organisations minimise downtime and enhance resilience.
Commvault's CTO, David Ngo, then unveiled the latest advancements, each contributing to the company's innovative protection and security solution:
Commvault Cloud Command: A unified dashboard for managing all Commvault services, with integrated visibility into the health, risk levels, security, and recovery.
Commvault Risk Analysis: A machine learning-powered tool that works as a cyber sentinel, securing sensitive data to prevent cyber exposure.
Commvault Threat Scan: A digital detective of sorts, inspecting backup content to quarantine suspicious datasets and ensuring clean recoveries.
Commvault Auto Recovery: This tool tests your recovery readiness and offers forensic analysis to pinpoint clean recovery points.
Commvault Threatwise Advisor: This new feature enables intelligent assessment of backed-up workloads, recommending where sensors should be configured to ensure key data is protected.
One of the event's highlights was an insightful panel discussion hosted by Steve Preston, Commvault's VP for Security. The panel comprised Moriah Hara and Dr. Ed Amoroso from TAG Cyber LLC, Commvault's own CISO, Javier Dominguez, and Yabing Wang, CIO at Just Works. This diverse group touched on a broad range of topics, such as:
The critical role of the CISO in organisations: With the rising complexity of digital threats, the importance of having a strategic leader guiding an organisation's cyber defence can't be overstated.
The AI threat: Imagine a video or voice message that sounds exactly like your CEO but isn't! The panel discussed the dangers of AI-manipulated communication and its implications.
The changing face of risk in the age of COVID-19: The pandemic and the resultant shift to remote working have drastically changed our perception of risk and risk acceptance.
For those aiming to stay ahead of the curve in our evolving digital landscape, Commvault's unique approach provides a compelling solution. By prioritising proactive data protection and security, Commvault demonstrates adaptability and foresight in the face of the rapidly changing cyber threat environment.
I recently had the opportunity to attend Tech Field Day 27, where industry leaders in the CXL space, Memverge, AsteraLabs, and the CXL Consortium, presented their latest developments in high-speed interconnect technology. These presentations highlighted how Compute Express Link (CXL) is poised to revolutionise server architecture and transform memory utilisation in data centres.
CXL provides a unified, high-performance interface for memory, storage, and computational resources, enabling efficient processing of large amounts of data with reduced latency. With CXL, data centre operators can build more scalable, efficient, and versatile systems, allowing for better energy efficiency and reduced costs.
One of the key advantages of CXL is its ability to provide a high-speed interface between CPUs and other accelerators. This can significantly reduce latency and improve performance in data centre applications such as machine learning, artificial intelligence, and big data analytics. CXL also provides a unified interface for memory, and computational resources, simplifying system design and management and improving resource utilisation.
CXL is highly scalable and efficient, allowing data centre operators to build systems that can scale up or down as needed without sacrificing performance or efficiency. By reducing the complexity and cost of memory management, CXL promises to improve the overall performance of data centre applications.
Just as Storage Area Networks (SANs) revolutionised how storage is managed in data centres, CXL is poised to transform how memory is utilised in server architectures. Like SANs, CXL offers a scalable and efficient solution to a critical problem in data centre architecture. As data centre applications have grown in complexity and demand, the need for faster and more efficient memory utilisation has become increasingly important. CXL provides the necessary bandwidth and performance to keep up with these demands, allowing companies to build systems that can scale up or down as needed without sacrificing performance or efficiency.
CXL is a game-changing technology that promises to transform memory utilisation in data centres. With its scalability, versatility, and energy efficiency, CXL will play a critical role in the future of server architecture. The developments presented at Tech Field Day 27 highlight the exciting advancements and demonstrate the potential for CXL to revolutionise the data centre industry, just as SANs did for storage.
If, like me, you are new to the concepts of CXL, I highly recommend you watch the presentation by the CXL Consortium below. Also, be sure to check out the websites of the CXL presenters for more information, the links are below.
Data management just got better with Commvault's latest semi-annual platform release. This new release brings advanced capabilities for organisations seeking comprehensive data management capabilities across hybrid cloud environments.
The three key focus areas in Commvault's latest platform release are data protection, data security, and data transformation. These are all crucial aspects of data management, and I’m impressed to see how Commvault is bringing these focus areas together in this release.
Commvault has also focused on two key trends in the industry - the movement to a multi-cloud strategy and the increasing risk of cyber threats. With more organisations moving to the cloud, it is essential to have a platform that can manage data across different cloud environments. At the same time, the threat of cyber attacks is ever-increasing, and it is essential to have a comprehensive data management solution that includes data protection and security.
Check out my video below for my thoughts and more information about this release.
In conclusion, Commvault's latest platform release is a significant step forward in data management. With its focus on data protection, data security, and data transformation, Commvault is providing organisations with a comprehensive solution to manage their data effectively. The increasing risk of cyber threats and the move to multi-cloud strategies make this release even more relevant and timely. I am excited to see how Commvault's latest platform will help organisations optimise their data management strategies and unlock more value from their data.
For more information check out Commvault’s blog and take a look at my doodle.
With your network now reaching much further than the boundaries of your offices, managing an enterprise network is much more complex than ever before.
Kentik’s mission is two-fold.
To make life awesome for people building the connected world
Deliver one comprehensive observability platform for running all of an enterprise’s infrastructure.
During #TFD27, Kentik presented their SaaS-based Enterprise Network Observability Platform. Their platform can receive telemetry from various sources using integrations and agents. With this data via powerful analytics, they can provide network managers with automated insights to resolve issues, improve performance, control standards and much more.
During the demonstration, they showed a number of powerful tools that were able to troubleshoot various issues, including conducting root cause analysis over an application configured in a hybrid infrastructure.
I liked their platform's ability to configure various tests to help monitor the network and application performance. These are able to be configured to take place from agents you have installed across your network or public agents accessible over the internet across the world. This allows enterprise network admins the ability to receive insight from a variety of standpoints. Further to this, the visualisation capability within the platform was fantastic. The two examples below show visualisations, first of BGP routing and secondly of a complete network topology within AWS.
When managing a largescale complex enterprise network, these tools will be invaluable to ensure you have visibility across not only the networks within the offices but across datacenters, into the cloud and beyond.
You can see my doodle covering Kentik’s presentation below and be sure to check out the presentations on the TFD website.
To learn more about Kentik check out their website here.
I recently joined the awesome Tech Field Day crew for #TFD27 taking part in a not so sunny silicon valley. Unfortunately for me this time I joined remotely but that didn’t stop the content being as awesome as ever!
First up at #TFD27 was Men&Mice presented micetro a management and orchestration solution for DNS, DHCP and IPAM (DDI).
There were two specific elements I really liked about micetro. The first is the fact it is an overlay tool, not aiming to replace your existing tools but abstract the management from them whilst improving workflow and orchestration. The second stand-out point for me was the comprehensive list of supported solutions that they were able to manage.
During the demonstration, they were able to show unified management of DDI across Linux, and Windows as well as cloud-based solutions in Azure, AWS and beyond.
Recorded live in Silicon Valley as part of Tech Field Day 27 on March 8, 2023. Watch the entire presentation at Men&Mice Presents at Tech Field Day 27 - Tech Field Day
DDI is such a critical element for organisations, and with the introduction of cloud and multi-cloud requirements, the complexity of managing it is only growing. micetro allows administrators to have a single point of truth across multiple solutions allowing corporate standards to be set, maintained and monitored across the multitude of implementation points. Many organisations today rely on an Excel spreadsheet to try and manage DDI, so a solution like micetro can infinitely improve this experience, savings time, improving security and offering enhanced functionality.
Check out my doodle from the presentation below.
Commvault has recently released its semi-annual platform release introducing new capabilities across the hybrid cloud. Check out my video and doodle below for more information regarding what you can expect in this release.
Features within this release include
Google Cloud Regional Snapshot support
New Data Protection support for DevOps Protection
Oracle Compute Infrastructure (OCI) Storage Tiering
Improved backup times for Hadoop File Systems (HDFS)
Enhanced security integrations with Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) platforms
Compliance Lock – Protect critical data with immutable storage
Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP
New security enhancements & certifications help improve security posture and compliance.
In my doodle below, you can see my thoughts and further information about this release.
Further to this, Commvault has released a blog post drilling into these features
Commvault Platform Release 2023
You can now watch the Commvault webinar covering this release on demand using the button below.
During VMware Explore I attended the VMware EUC keynote. During this session Shankar Iyer, Shawn Bass and others dug into the every changing world of hybrid working and how VMware aim to assist.
The session is now available to be viewed online if you have a VMware Explore account
VMware Explore Video Landing
One of the most important aspects for me to hear during the session was VMware’s focus on digital employee experience and not just the technology. It is important in the hybrid world of working that experience, security and productivity are at the front of our technical strategies.
You can read more about this session over at the VMware End-User Computing Blog at the link below
Please find my doodle with my key thoughts from the session below
Whilst at VMware Explore in Barcelona I attended this awesome session regarding the new features in vSphere 8. This session was hosted by Dave Morera and Himanshu Singh both from VMware. Much of the session focused on how vSphere 8 can now be used in many hybrid configuration with vSphere+ as well as the new hardware architectures allowing vSphere to make use of DPU’s for offloading of processing.
If you would like to read more about vSphere 8 be sure to check out the blog linked below.
What's New in vSphere 8? | VMware
You can see my doodle below capturing my key thoughts from the session.
Does your network infrastructure work for or against you!? We recently attended Juniper’s AI in Action conference to learn more about Mist and the Marvis Virtual Network Assistant (VNA) technologies.
Vendors have long been talking about the power of AI and how it will help to enhance our businesses. For many organisations, this seems like a pipe dream. However, it is safe to say that the AI technology built into Juniper Mist is a prime example of how AI can be of practical assistance.
During the AI in Action conference, we first heard about the history of Juniper Mist. Next, we heard how customers have leveraged Mist to improve the employee and customer experience. Finally, we saw demonstrations of the technology in action.
Your network infrastructure is arguably one of the essential components of your IT set-up, connecting your users and customers with their workloads and data. However, it is safe to say that networks have remained largely the same, aside from speed and capacity improvements, and are as complicated to manage as ever.
This is where Juniper’s experience-first networking tackles things differently. Whilst Juniper remains a leader in terms of performance and capability, the Mist AI-powered technology improves both user experience and manageability for the admins.
During the conference, we heard how Service Now was able to reduce its service tickets by 90% by using the AI.
Mist AI proactively monitors more than 150 states on the network before analysing what they mean with the Mist AI technology. As a result, Mist can highlight issues and critically report the root cause of problems, even when it isn’t a network-related issue. The customers on the panel said that this functionality had saved substantial time and helped resolve long-term problems.
One example given was that when a network issue is detected with an endpoint, an automatic packet capture could be started and stored in order to dramatically cut resolution time. This allows the problem to be resolved upon the initial report, rather than needing to wait for another instance before it can be diagnosed.
The presentations demonstrated how the Marvis Virtual Network Assistant can diagnose an issue with a Teams call from a text-based conversation. Once the admin had used Marvis to pinpoint the problem, Marvis Actions allowed the admin to explore and resolve the issues. In some cases, Marvis Actions can auto-resolve the issues by undertaking actions such as adding mission VLAN takes, fixing port configuration and more.
However, the power of the Juniper Mist platform doesn’t end with the AI. Customers also spoke about how easy it was to set up. For example, one customer migrating from Cisco shared how the Juniper devices can reutilise the Cisco base plates. In some cases, this allowed the task of installing the APs to be passed to end users. The customers found that installing a new AP could take as little as 22 seconds from start to finish.
The final demonstration - and the icing on the cake - was showing how to set up a complete branch office. The demo included setting up an edge router with the relevant security and SD-WAN configuration, a switch with VLANs and PoE, and a new AP. From start to finish, thanks to the cloud management and pre-defined intelligent templates, it took just 6 minutes and 47 seconds.
With many users and organisations demanding greater flexibility and an improved experience, the network needs to change to support these demands. At the same time, we see a skills shortage and increased demands on IT. With the intelligent technologies demonstrated at the conference, it is clear why Juniper is leading the way with its Mist AI technology.
The roadmap session was the third session I created a doodle for at Commvault Connections 2022. Be sure to check out the other blog posts and doodles at the links below.
The roadmap session built upon the fundamental principles of the Commvault strategy with further insight into the direction and products that are coming. It is clear that Commvault takes a high level of pride in its ability to connect with its users, their community and listen to what is needed. One of the statistics that was shared was the fact that four hundred product enhancements in the last year have come from direct customer feedback.
Key to the Commvault strategy are the following three principles
End-to-end data visibility
Broadest Workload Protection
Faster Business Response
You can see further detail regarding the announcements and planned focus areas in the doodle below.
This is the second in my series of blog posts regarding Commvault Connections that took place at the beginning of November 2022. You can check out the other blog posts and doodles at the link below.
The customer panel session was surprisingly one of my favourite sessions. I say surprisingly as these sessions can often become a beauty parade of customers who tell stories about loving the vendor.
This session was different, covering real-life stories that CIOs were going through as part of their organisation’s digital transformation.
Taking part in the session was Michael Mathews (Vice President of Technology and Innovation at Oral Robers University, Reza Morakabti (CIO at Commvault) and Isabelle Guis (CMO of Commvault). Throughout the session, there were lots of lessons from the trenches shared by Michael and Reza. They talked about the need for IT to change to a customer service-centric entity.
Some of my favourite sound bites from the session can be seen below.
Reza Morakabati
IT are a service delivery organisation and the users are our customers. The users have become much more sophisticated and technologically aware. IT now has to be more consultative working with the users for a common goal.
Michael Mathews
IT needs to endear themselves to the business and the users. IT needs to be the good stewards of the data. Technology needs to work better at work (office etc) than at home. IT needs to be 100% available and easy to use.
Michael Mathews
There has never been a greater day to be a good CIO, but never a worst day to be a mediocre one!
Michael Mathews
It often isn’t possible or right for IT to own everything in-house. Great partnerships with specialists are needed especially with things like security.
Michael Mathews
IT needs to walk in the shoes of the user to understand where they can provide value.
Michael Mathews
The biggest challenge right now is managing in an ever-changing world. Technology is no longer a science but an art! The CIO needs to be the maestro.
Below you can see my doodle with my key takeaways.
Commvault Connections was a great opportunity not only to hear an update from Commvault on their strategy but also to get insight into wider technology trends and real-life insights from customers. Across the conference, I created doodles for three of the sessions. You can find the links to the other sessions below.
The keynote was led by Commvault’s fantastic CEO, Sanjay Mirchandani. Sanjay is a great keynote speaker, always giving great clarity and getting through the fluff to the points that matter.
There was a theme across the conference about innovating with confidence. The keynote set about explaining what this means and the backstory behind how we got to where we are today.
Ultimately IT professionals are now responsible for delivering the dreams of the organisation and its leaders. But delivering the dreams isn’t enough on its own it needs to be done in a managed and secure way.
To deliver these dreams, IT and business professionals have turned to SaaS applications and multiple cloud resources to achieve what is needed. Whilst these disparate resources have allowed for an increase in innovation and a reduction in time to value, it has led to massive complexity around security and data protection.
Mirchandani explained that your data has a higher value to not only you but also attackers, which has led to an increased need to protect and secure.
He explained that IT professionals need the right tools to gain control of these disparate workloads, offering the confidence to the business that they can innovate with confidence whilst IT ensures that everything is professionally managed, protected, and secure. These tools are exactly what Commvault sets to deliver.
Several technologies were discussed to help with this overall goal. This included Metallic Threatwise, an early warning system that proactively baits, deceives, and surfaces bad actors. Threatwise makes it harder for hackers to find your organisation’s valuable data, reducing their dwell time to help ensure you aren’t compromised. This was a completely different approach from those I have heard of before, especially for it to be included as part of a data management platform. I look forward to digging more into this in the future.
Also discussed was Commvault’s breadth of portfolio, offering protection across not only a wide range of solutions but also across on-premises and cloud technology with a unified management solution in their Command Center product.
It was clear that Commvault’s approach focuses on simplicity and flexibility across its portfolio.
You can see my doodle from the keynote below, covering the key elements that stood out to me.
After a busy week at VMware Explore 2022, we wanted to reflect on our week. We discuss our experience of being back at live events, what sessions we enjoyed, what we have learnt and of course the key take aways.
Check out our video below to hear our final thoughts.
One of my favorite sessions at VMware Explore 2022 was the Microsoft General session. This may seem odd to many of you, but for me this is where I see many customers on their journey managing both VMware and Azure based technologies.
In this session Jeff Woolsey covered the Azure VMware Solution (vSphere running in Azure) and the Azure Arc technologies including Azure Arc for vSphere (Managing your vSphere environment from Azure).
For me it was a great session with a mixture of technical deep dive, evidence based case studies and demonstrations.
Here is my doodle.
Here are my doodles from the VMworld 2022 General Session taking place in Barcelona. The key message behind the event was the need for organisations to move from a cloud first strategy to one of a cloud smart strategy.
You can read more on this on my blog post
There were lots of announcements covering VMware’s technologies from vSphere 8 and vSAN being GA, a free tier of VMware Aria Hub being made available and much more. you can check out most of the news from VMware in this post.
