Vmware VMWorld 2014 - Keynote Summary - Day One

VMWare's annual Vmworld 2014 kicks off in San Francisco.  Robin Matlock, VMware's Chief Marketing Officer, headlines the keynote session, first discussing the recent 6.0 magnitude earthquake that recently hit the Napa Valley area.  She went on to review the 3 strategic priorities for Vmware: EUC, SDDC, Hybrid Cloud.  After a brief overview of VMWare's Destination GiveBack Program (VMware to donate up to $250,000 to 5 selected charities), Robin introduces Pat Gelsinger, CEO of VMware.

Pat discusses the change in IT moving from Traditional "brick & mortar" IT methods to a more fluid "liquid" one, highlighting the concept of a "liquid world." He provides a few client case studies where companies, working with and integrating VMware technologies, have moved from the rigid IT platforms to a more dynamic and "liquid" model:

MetroHealth Case Study: http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/customers/09Q3_cs_vmw_Metro_Health_english.pdf

Ministry of Education for Malaysia Case Study:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/28/teradici-idUSnBw285577a+100+BSW20140528

Revlon Case Study – SRM for DR after fire
http://www.vmware.com/company/customers/revlon-case-study.html

Pat talks about how virtualization has re-shaped our expectations and demand of IT and how the old montage of  “Built to Last” really is much more about “Built to change." An example of the impact of transformational IT is Uber vs. Avis/Hertz.  Uber has no real physical assets, unlike their industry competitors Avis and Hertz, yet their market cap is equivalent to these legacy companies. 

Pat quickly introduces Tony Scott, VMware's CIO, and how VMware is transforming how they internally deploy IT (eat your own dog food).  With key partnerships with SAP, how VMware is internally moving their production SAP environment to vCloud Air. Additionally, outfitting VMware's entire workforce on a mobility standard based in VMware Horizon.

Another client example provide was around University of Phoenix's Apollo Group and how they transformed their IT environment, moving 35,000+ workload from the public cloud to a vBlock-based private cloud deployment, realizing increased flexibility at a lower TCO.

He highlights the efforts of Tim Garza, Dept. of Water Resources for SF and how their move to vCloud provided over a 40% reduction in both OPEX and CAPEX and increased productivity by 4x.

The big emphasis was around changing the conversation of traditional IT "VS" new cloud approaches to "The power of AND" and how VMware's SDDC approach provides the platform to accomplish this.

Pat introduces VMware vCloud Suite 5.8 and announces the beta version of vSphere 6.0 (more updates to follow on enhancements).  He also officially introduces the beta of VVOLs and the 40+ vendor partners who have already tested VVOL API functionality.  He also discusses the re-branding of VMware's cloud management suite - VCOPS, VCM, VCO, etc - now named VMware vRealize Suite.

Pat's next big announcement was around VMware's entry into the hyper-converged space, leveraging the partner ecosystem for a new Hyper-Converged Infrastructure offering, VMware EVO (more detail to follow in the Day Two post).

VMware EVO:RAIL – designed for 100 VMs (stackable to 4x)
- Dell, EMC, Fujitsu, Supermicro, inspur, netone –

VMware EVO:RACK – in tech preview at VMworld
- Part of the OCP Alliance (Open Compute Program Alliance)

Pat moves onto the need for open standards integration and the beta release of VMware Integrated OpenStack, which provides integration of Openstack APIs via Congress module that lay on top of VMware's SDDC (ESX, NSX,VSAN/VVOL).  Additionally, Pat announces Project Fargo, enabling VM delivery of containers faster and more light-weight)than linux-based delivery model (with integration into containers standards like Docker and container management tools like Google's Kubernetes).  He also announces Pivotal's support for Docker and Kubernetes in future Pivotal releases.

Pat moves onto the importance of security in the new cloud world and the need for securing the "inner IT layers", past the "hard shell" of the traditional DMZ.  With traditional security technology, securing the inner components can become cost and operationally prohibitive.  NSX helps address both the cost and complexity of inter-VM security by virtualizing the control and configuration of the security layer in a policy-based manner.

Pat announces 4 key partner offering from Arista, Dell, F5, and HP for integrated SDN functions.  More details to come on this in later posts.  He also mentions that Gartner's 2014 Magic Quadrant for Networking features VMware as a visionary - first SW vendor with this honor.

Pat reviews the rebranding ofr VMware's cloud services, formerly VCHS, to vCloud Air, as well as the recent acquisition of CloudVolumes for cloud-based virtual application delivery.  He introduces Bill Fathers – SVP of vCloud Air/Vmware cloud services (formerly exec of Saavis).

Update on the VCHS since its launch 12-18 months ago:
- Tenents of cloud – Agility, Efficiency, Cost Savings
- vCloud Air initial offerings at launch – DRaaS, DTaaS, PaaS
- Public cloud trends:
      2009 – 2% of VM workloads in the public cloud
      2014 – 6% of VM workloads in the public cloud

4 Phase journey – Experimental, Professional, Mass Market, Legacy
     2014 marks Experimental to Professional Phase shift (45% of Vmware client use public cloud assets)

Bill reviews the expanding datacenter footprint of VMware vCloud Air, now in NA, EMEA, A&P and adding 1 DC per month. Bill also comments on the initiatives around Government cloud – FedRamp certified offering due in the next 30-60 days.  VMware boasts one of the largest partner-led CSP programs, with over 3900 providers in 100 countries.

He goes on to review the new vCloud Air offerings:

- DevOps service
- DB as a Service – MySQL and MS SQLServer for phase one (including DR)
- Object Storage Service – based on EMC ViPR technology (in Beta starting September)
- Mobility Services – Pivotal cloud services will be available
- Cloud Management – vRealize Air Automation – provided in SaaS model (in Beta)

Bill ends with an easy, consumer-based model for procuring  vCloud Air services, currently in beta but scheduled for GA in January of 2015.  Go to www.vmware.com/go/ondemand .

Look for the Day two Keynote summary!

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