VCE is getting ready to listen to the VMworld keynote in San Francisco. I’m looking forward to hearing VMware discuss the software defined data center, end user computing, virtualization, and more!
Below is a live blog from the VMworld keynote.
8:53 am PT
People are filing into the VMworld keynote. There’s a lot of eager VMware fans waiting to find out the latest news from the company.
9:00 am PT
VMware: The limits of the possible can only be defined by going beyond them into the impossible. The company kicks off the show with a brilliant dance routine and light show.
9:12 am PT
VMware will be spending up to $250,000 for several children, education, environment, human’s rights and women and girls. Attendees can build paper airplanes to fly and will represent the amount of money donated by VMware.
9:14 am PT
Pat Gelsinger just took the stage at VMware and is comparing discussing the fluidity of transformation and evolution. He’s discussing how key customers, including Metro Health and Lufthansa, are being more fluid and innovative in how they use technology.
9:20 am PT
Pat Gelsinger is discussing how companies and people have to be brave to leap ahead in technology. VCE is one of those brave companies, we’ve spearheaded the converged infrastructure industry and we’re driving the evolution of the marketplace. The brave will certainly thrive.
9:23 am PT
Pat Gelsinger just noted that Apollo Education Group can sleep easy at night because they’re running their IT infrastructure on a Vblock System.
9:28 am PT
The path of the software defined enterprise will come the power of “and,” rather than having only traditional apps or cloud -native apps. Gelsinger wants to bridge the gap between the two columns below. 
9:32 am PT
VMware is announcing several new ways of moving into the cloud, including a key feature with VCE!
9:36 am PT
Gelsinger is also announcing a common platform for all applications – containers without compromise – with Docker, Google and Pivotal.
9:41 am PT
9:42 am PT
VMware is also announcing strong momentum in IT security. Gelsinger relates security to a hard boiled egg – hard on the outside, soft on inside.
9:45 am PT
VMware sees the Hybrid Cloud as the future, not a way to the future. They rebranded their offering as the vCloud Air. VCE will be supporting the vCloud Air offerings.
Gelsinger: “The future is Hybrid”
9:48 am PT
Bill Fathers, EVP and GM of Hybrid Cloud at VMware, just took the stage to give us an update of where VMware is with the hybrid cloud, look at customer use cases and then discuss the future.
9:51 am PT
Customers are moving to the public cloud for agility, efficiency, and cost savings, causing public cloud adoption to increase. There are four phases of cloud adoption: experimental, professional, mass market and legacy. But the public cloud environments do not scale, customers need the hybrid cloud to scale into the professional phase.
9:57 am PT
Fathers: vCloud Air is VMware’s hybrid cloud platform.
Customers stated that they’re using the vCloud Air for scalability, disaster recovery, speed to delivery for new services, existing applications and more. There’s coverage in North America, Europe, Middle East and Africa as well as Asia. VMware has 3,900 partners in 100 countries, which is the world’s largest hybrid cloud network!
10:03 am PT
VMware vCloud Air will include:
- DevOps Services – available later this year
- Database as a Services – MySQL, SQL server
- Object Storage – based on ViPR (beta in September)
- Mobility Services – Airwatch, Pivotal
- Cloud Management – vRealize air automation
Users can get in the beta program by visiting vCloudAir on demand.
10:09 am PT
Pat Gelsinger closes out the first keynote by asking customers to “Go Bravely” into the next evolution of IT.
10:19 am PT
Carl Eschenbach just stepped up to set the stage for customer spotlights. The first customer is Medtronic, who focused on automation and the software defined data center.
Customer advice: Do more with less and bring capabilities to market that are truly transformational.
10:24 am PT
The next customer to take the stage is from MIT, who provides IT services as a platform as a service for their community of 1,000 small businesses. They’re working with VMware to virtualize their platform – they’re 99% virtualized.
10:29 am PT
VMware welcomes its last customer – Ford Motor Company – to the stage to discuss innovation in IT. Ford needed the ability to rapidly provision services and applications. Their infrastructure couldn’t handle the needs of the company. Therefore they needed to rebuild for scale.
10:38 am PT
VMware closes out the keynote by discussing how IT is about the power of “and” . Together, there are no limits.