Top Gun Tech Thursdays

VMware Top Gun Tech Thursday schedule is now live!  Be sure to check out these great topics to expand your field of expertise across the Software Defined Datacenter, End User Computing and Hybrid Cloud platforms. See a Demo (and learn how to do it yourself), get our most frequently asked questions (and the answers!), and ask an SE any questions you have on the product! 2014DECXTREDU

Sign up at http://www.vmware.com/go/TopGunTechThursday

 Check out these great sessions:

• Dec 4 : Horizon Safe Passage Program
• Dec 11 : VMware Virtual SAN (VSAN)

VMware IT Outcomes public site available!

With VMware, IT organizations can achieve critical results, or outcomes, with unique capabilities that help IT respond to business requests quickly and cost-effectively, without compromising security, control or choice. These are the high-value IT outcomes your organization can achieve:

- Data center virtualization and standardization
- Streamlined and automated data center operations
- Security controls native to infrastructure
- High availability and resilient infrastructure
- Application and infrastructure delivery automation
http://itoutcomes.vmware.com/ 2014DECXTR

What's going on in the Industry?

• CRN's Kevin McLaughlin discusses how VMware got its SDN product to market first, in comparison to Cisco, and shared some examples of how VMware is trying to capitalize on that head start. McLaughlin reports, "VMware and Cisco were close partners for a long time, but in a relatively short time, they've devolved into the Hatfields and McCoys of the data center. And according to partners on both sides, this skirmish is quickly morphing into a full-blown philosophical dispute."
• Gabe Knuth of BrianMadden.com discusses VMware's announcement that the company will build Linux support into Horizon View along with the associated conversations around this news. Knuth muses, "There's a market even though it's a niche of a niche."
• Datacenter Dynamics' Peter Judge discusses several announcements coming out of VMworld Europe 2014 in his article, "VMworld – cracking open the data center." Judge reports, "VMware has its annual get-together in August in San Francisco, but a few weeks later the stories get extended and embellished at the European edition of VMworld in Barcelona. This year was no exception with a quiverful of slogans, and a barrage of announcements, all of which added up to an assertion that VMware would like to take charge of pretty much everything from the hardware in your data centers upwards." 2014DECNWS

Tech Preview: vCloud Air Object Storage

VMware made some significant announcements today around vCloud Air (previously vCloud Hybrid Service) at VMworld San Francisco 2014. One of the announcements was on a new storage service – vCloud Air Object Storage.

VMware vCloud Air today has two block storage tiers, Standard and SSD-Accelerated, which look to a virtual machine like a block volume. Object Storage acts as low-speed, long-term storage for buckets of unstructured data and isn't associated with any specific virtual machine...more 2014DECHBD

Tips for a successful Virtual SAN (VSAN) Proof Of Concept (POC)

Pretty soon I’ll be heading out on the road to talk at various VMUGs about our first 6 months with VSAN, VMware’s Virtual SAN product. Regular readers will need no introduction to VSAN, and as was mentioned at VMworld this Continue reading → 2014DECSDC

Slow backup of VM on VSAN Datastore

Someone at out internal field conference asked me a question around why doing a full back up of a virtual machine on a VSAN datastore is slower then when doing the same exercise for that virtual machine on a traditional storage array. Note that the test that was conducted here was done with a single... [more] 2014DECSDC

The Impact of ITaaS on Request Fulfillment

By John Worthington Automation and standardization benefits IT…and the business Advances in technology are rapidly enabling new levels of standardization, cost control, pre-authorization and automation far beyond traditional IT environments. This makes it possible to deliver IT-as-a-Service (ITaaS), with IT focusing on the outcomes the business needs and functioning much like a business itself more » 2014DECSDC

Behind the Scenes with a Hybrid Application: the VMworld 2014 Mobile App

By: Mathew Lodge How do you build an application that can handle 2,000 requests/second in less than 6 weeks that has to integrate on-premises systems, native mobile and SaaS services? It has to pass a strict security audit, be managed as a single ... more » 2014DECHBD

Get Started with VMware vCloud Air: Development and Testing

Last month, we provided an overview of five different ways your business can get started with hybrid cloud. For our first installment in this blog series, we look at the first use case: adopting hybrid cloud for development and testing. Businesses today need to increase productivity, enhance quality and launch applications faster than ever. ... more » 2014DECHBD

Schuberg Philis Deploys VMware NSX

Summary • Application Roll Out Reduced from Weeks to Minutes • VMware NSX Enables Better Agility, Flexibility and Security Recently.  We had the opportunity to speak with the team at Schuberg Philisabout about their successful, production deployment of VMware NSX. As background, Schuberg Philis is an innovative business technology company and an important player in the... more » 2014DECSDC

New Microsoft Licensing Announcement makes it easier for VDI

Microsoft is providing a per-user licensing model to Microsoft volume-licensing users starting December 1. In the words of one of our EUC Specialists - “Effectively this means that customers can now purchase a single license for a user that covers their access to a VDI session. This contrasts the previous model (VDA, CSL, etc) where the licensing for a user that wanted to use VDI was complicated. You had to know what devices they would be connecting from, whether that device was covered under SA or not and dig deep into the customers agreement with Microsoft to determine if they were covered. Now a customer just purchases a USL for each user that is going to use VDI and that covers them from any device. It will definitely be simpler and should end up being simpler as well.” Read More here.. DEC2014ECP

Smart devices Open Up #Boundless Opportunities for Delta Airlines

Airline stocks have been going higher and higher recently with the decline of oil prices. That is not the only reason to take notice of airlines. Airline crew members are the most mobile workers in the world. And when Delta wanted to extend its mobile Windows systems and apps to cover its exceptionally mobile workforce, they worked with AirWatch to make it happen.

Learn more on boundless.vmware.com and watch the video after the jump... 2014DECECP

When Every Second Counts, Count on VMware

by Geoffrey Murase, Solutions Marketing, End-User Computing I recently visited Tualatin Valley Fire and Rescue (TVFR) near Portland, Oregon to film a video case study documenting the innovative ways they’re using VMware desktop virtualization technology. They had initially used desktop virtualization to simplify management of desktops in their office but they quickly found other use [more] 2014DECECP