VMworld 2017 Europe Conference. Day 0

Hi, Habr! This is the first of a short series of posts devoted to the VMworld 2017 Europe conference, which is being held today in Barcelona.

In this part I will briefly talk about the conference itself and that you can find interesting things in it. Unfortunately, due to the restrictions imposed by the organizers, I cannot disclose information from the sessions I attended on day zero. But I am sure that I will definitely make it up in the next three days. (Be careful, there are a lot of pictures under the cut)

Each year, VMware holds two large conferences - VMworld US and VMworld Europe, designed, respectively, for customers and partners from the United States and the EMEA region. This year, the organizers decided to move the European conference closer to the US - from October to September 11-14, which is logical, since the main announcements are made at a conference in the United States. As in previous years, the Fira Gran Via congress center in Barcelona was chosen as the venue.
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Pragmatic readers will ask: "How much does this event cost?" My answer is this: the pleasure is not cheap and can be compared with the cost of a tour to a tropical resort. The entrance ticket to the conference will cost € 1475 excluding taxes (VAT). Flight and accommodation are paid separately. Participation in a partner conference (day 0) will require additional contributions. However, for those who have registered in advance, the organizers will throw off 200 €. For members of the VMUG Advantage community, VCP certified professionals, and regular members (Alumni) discounts apply.

What was on the bottom day

Monday is the day of the Partner Exchange Conference and sessions where only registered partners of the company can enter. The rest of the participants who arrived on this day must go through pre-registration, get handouts, hang out in a recreation area, or do hands-on labs lab work.
Since Sunday, free buses run between the airport of Barcelona and the conference venue. What we have used.



On Monday, the first sessions began as early as 8:30. On day zero, there are about 150 of them. All sessions are recorded and after some time become available on the VMworld portal for viewing by conference participants. The most significant and popular VMware sessions lay out in public access. Examples: https://www.vmworld.com/en/us/video/top-sessions.html .



Due to the recent unfortunate events in Barcelona, ​​the organizers of the conference have made additional efforts to ensure security.



To get your badge, just enter your email address at the check-in desks or scan a QR code and show your identification card to a pretty girl. The badge, by the way, is not simple, but with an RFID tag, so anyone can attach their smartphone to it to get your contact information.



Among the handouts, there is a traditional backpack (this year VMware didn’t stint on design or quality), a notepad, a water bottle, a branded conference T-shirt and a pile of waste paper from partners who attracted various gifts to their booths with various a bunch of prizes and interesting technological solutions.





On the zero day the exhibition does not work, but through the window you can see how the work boils:



Lounge area for relaxation:



Here you can pass the time between events, chat with colleagues, play outdoor chess, billiards or six-meter table football (16 pairs of hands are required):



General session time. At the entrance to the hall, employees scan all visitors and screen out those who are not supposed to attend the session.



In short, the essence of the presentation: the company thanked its partners for their contribution to the development of joint business (most of the sales of VMware products in the world and especially in Europe are done through partner channels). VMware shared the success of vSAN and NSX sales growth and lifted the veil of secrecy over cloud development plans in conjunction with Amazon and other service providers.

After several scheduled sessions and lunch, it is time for laboratory work. On the giant screen displays a variety of interesting information - the number of laboratory, performed by the participants, the number of created and active virtual machines, and so on.



Meet the Experts zone, where you can meet the world's leading experts in the field of virtualization. Schedule displayed on the screens.



On the left is a bar counter, behind which there are experts in various areas of virtualization, ready to answer almost any tricky question.

Hackathon

From 6 pm to 00:00 hakaton passed. This year, nine teams competed in creating applications and modules that facilitate the management of virtual or VDI infrastructures, clouds, software storage. The participants themselves choose which team to join, in which programming language to write (in the table for registration, participants with programming skills in Perl, Python, Java, JavaScripts, PowerShell were listed) and what contribution they could make to the project.

Unfortunately, this year all the pre-registration places were occupied in less than a day, so I could not get to this event, but judging by the messages from Twitter , the team won, which optimized the popular vCheck script, which allows receiving information about virtual infrastructure configurations

Labs Hands-on labs

Those who work with VMware know that many of their solutions can be tested online at Hands-on Labs . On the days of the conference, VMware makes available a lot of new labs to which you can connect either from a workstation equipped with Dell Wyse thin clients or from a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) zone using your own device, a laptop or tablet.

In addition to the individual, group laboratory works are available under the guidance of a trainer (Expert-Led Workshop), but they require prior registration.
If you run into any lab problems, you can contact the proctor. There are specialists from the Russian representation of VMware, so you can always ask for help in your own language.

Examination Center

During the days of the conference, the Pearson VUE mobile center operates at the exhibition center, where anyone can try to pass the VCP, VCAP or vSAN Specialist certification exams. All exams have a 50% discount. The truth is that the discount is calculated from the European price ($ 250 for the VCP status exam), but it still turns out cheaper than at the Test Center in Russia (about $ 175).

For those who could not attend the conference, VMware provides a 25% discount when registering online on the VUE website, you just need to specify the secret word: VMWBARC25 . The discount applies to all exams at registration before September 14, 2017, inclusive, and exams booked in this way must be passed no later than November 14, 2017. If you have been preparing for a long time, you have an additional incentive.

On this zero day came to an end. Continued in the next part.

Andrei Konovalov, Head of Virtualization at Jet Infosystems