By: John Boyle >> Another VMworld has concluded and the 2016 event in Las Vegas, Nevada didn’t disappoint. This year’s theme was be_Tomorrow and Zenoss offered a strong and engaging presence at the conference.
This year there were a total of 817 sessions this year, up from the 752 sessions last year, with major tracks including Hybrid Cloud, Software-Defined Data Center, Cloud Native Applications, End User Computing, Partner Exchange @ VMworld and Technology Deep Dives & Futures.
I had the chance to catch up with Brian Wilson, Senior Vice President of Customer Success at Zenoss, upon his return from VMworld and captured his takeaways from the conference this year.
John: "How was VMworld and what was the Zenoss team up to at the event?”
Brian: “As usual, VMware put on a fantastic show of the state of the art in data center technology. At the Zenoss booth, we were promoting our long term focus on hybrid IT. VMware has really embraced the fact that IT is hybrid in the last year or so, something that Zenoss has addressed for some time. Zenoss has played in the virtualized space for over a decade now and we are proud and grateful for the strong relationship we have with VMware as both a partner and a client. So we were of course at VMworld to engage with attendees about Zenoss but also to support VMware.”
John: "What was Zenoss conveying at VMworld this year?”
Brian: “We really focused on discussing how Zenoss combines the oversight of all virtual servers, guests, and workloads with a complete view of physical servers and network devices to provide a holistic monitoring solution for entire virtual infrastructure environments. Again, our solutions focus on hybrid IT so VMworld is a great event for Zenoss. Our message was very well received throughout the entire week."
John: "How did cloud factor in to the VMworld discussion?"
Brian: "Cloud was discussed in the context of hybrid IT. Because this was VMworld and not AWS it was more about how cloud is included in infrastructures and not the sole focus. Cloud is very important in the hybrid discussion but VMworld provided a more holistic view of the data center needs than just cloud as a single solution."
John: "What were some of the things at VMworld that struck you as the hottest tech topics and trends that were either discussed in sessions or on the show floor?”
Brian: "There is quite a bit of knowledge to be gained on the show floor. Many vendors had briefing rooms set up on the floor as part of their booths so attendees could stop in for a mini briefing on topics of interest. That really set them apart from the vendors who just gave things away.
I saw a lot of virtual reality incorporated into the floor discussions. Some were just fun and games but others providing the ability to configure a rack and perform administrative tasks interactively in a virtual data center.
With Zenoss, we unveiled our new booth format that allows the Zenoss team and attendees to actively engage and have impactful conversations throughout the show. We also brought a flavor of Austin, Texas to VMworld by giving away two Zenoss branded Yeti Coolers in a drawing and hosting a happy hour with all Texas beers. We received very positive feedback from attendees."
John: “Being a long-term partner of VMware what were the key takeaways for Zenoss this year?”
Brian: "As complexity continues to increase in the data center it is even more important to ensure that underlying management infrastructures and platforms are able to adapt and change. Remaining flexible is important because the rate of complexity is increasing at such a rapid rate. VMworld was founded a decade ago to focus on virtual machines. Today all anyone is talking about is the data center and VMworld has evolved to facilitate that conversation and it is one that Zenoss continues to engage in and lead"
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