#VMworld T-shirts Review 2016 – Part 1

I have to start by apologizing, that this review comes after VMworld, but I’ve actually had a really busy schedule at VMworld this year, and didn’t get much time to spend at the Solutions Exchange to find all the T-shirts or evenings free to actually write a few posts about the T-shirts. I do hope that most of the Vendors I list here will be represented at VMworld Europe in Barcelona, so people can still use this review for something useful 🙂

Name : Official VMworld T-Shirt
Model: C Port and Company 100% Cotton
Size: XXL
Quality: Seems like VMware has degraded the quality of their T-shirt this year. Last years pre-shrunked cotton was really good after washes, this one seems a bit too stiff.  It however is still alot better than some of the else T-shirts I’ve collected the other years.
Print: A few variations of the be_TOMORROW message that was all over the conference. Not too excessive, but still a bit bigger than I would have liked it, if I should wear this shirt anywhere but at VMUG’s and the like.
Score: 7/10 
Conclusion: An ok Shirt that doesn’t feel all that soft, but still quite ok.

 

Name : Veeam
Model: Gildan Softstyle – Ring Spun 100%  Cotton
Size:  XXL
Quality:  Feels really soft to the touch and hope that it feels this soft after a few washes. Not sure what the Ring Spun means but I hope that it’s somewhat like the Pre-shrunk thing that some of the other T-shirts have, that really keeps the shape of the T-shirt after you wash it a few times.
Print: As always Veeam has some big lettering on the front, which makes you notice this shirt when people walk around with it. Not sure I would wear this one anywhere at home though (or at a Veeam convention)
Score:  6/10
Conclusion:  Nice shirt, but the big print drags it down, to get a high score I want a shirt that I could actually wear in public too.

 

Name : Docker
Model: Canvas – 100% Cotton
Size: XXL
Quality:  A nice soft and thin T-shirt that’s from a new T-shirt Vendor that I don’t think I’ve seen before. Hope this stays in shape after washes.
Print:  Just the well-known Docker logo on the front and a simple ” Build Ship and Run Any App Anywhere” message on the back. Not too brazen.
Score: 7/10
Conclusion:  A nice quality and not too big a logo, I think i could wear this one once in a while 🙂

 

Name : Turbonomic (former VMturbo)
Model: Canvas – 100% Cotton
Size: XXL
Quality: The same company and same quality of T-shirt that Docker use.
Print: A big brain on the front where one half is the normal brain and the other half is a computer circuit version
Score:  7/10
Conclusion: Like Docker a very soft and nice T-shirt with an ok print, and not too brazen company logo. Actually surprised that the earlier VMturbo company has this understated company logo 🙂

 

#vExpert gifts at #vmworld

My humble opinion is that this years best vExpert gift comes from Datrium Storage

They gave out a Raspberry Pi 3 to all vExperts who had registered.

Cohesity had a really nice Timbuk2 backpack with a 6000mAh power bank, charger cables and a water bottle also a very nice and useful gift.

Over at the Nimble booth they gave out t-shirts, unfortunately the largest was XL and not American sizes.

Docker gave out a vExpert Cap and a T-shirt if you sat in on 15 min session about docker, by a very enthusiastic speaker.

At the Solidfire booth I picked up the new version of Cards against humanity and a pair of the famous Solidfire socks 😉

I saw that both Datacore and Catalogic Software had something too, but didn’t get around to picking those up.

Only sad thing this year is that no one did the really nice vExpert Polos, that I see a lot of fellow vExperts wear at VMworld.

But a BIG thank you to all the companies that decided to do something for the vExpert community.

Thoughts on #vmworld 2016 so far

First off I have to admit I’m still jet lagged so if the wordings come off a bit negative that is not the intention of this post.

I have to say that Las Vegas is a completely different city than San Francisco. I like most of the other attendees live on a hotel on the Strip. And that seems to be nothing but casinos, hotels and bars. Shops that you find everywhere in SF like T-mobile or say a Target are 2-3 miles away and in this heat you need to take a cab to get there. So eventhough the hotels are much cheaper than SF I think this willbe a more expensive trip than last year.

The Strip at night however is an amazing sight, kinda creates a magical atmosphere with all the colourful lights on all the casinos, seems no expense spared to try to attract potential guests to their hotel or casino.

Last night i attended what i would deem the best VMuG party ever. The inaugural VMUG Members Party. Held in The House of Blue at the Mandalay. I have actually no idea what the bands name was, but damn did they play great music. 80’s Rock coverband, with a lot of ACDC , Aerosmith Run DMC and the like, that really got the crowd going.

Michael Dell took the stage and we had an air guitar competition, and of course the legendary #wreckingcrew was there as well.

Really nice way to kick off VMworld.

#VMWorld US is over, my thoughts.

So the week of VMworld has passed, and I’ve had a great week again. But looking back at the week, it has been more about the networking and talking to other costumers, about their experiences with using VMWare products, than it has been about huge announcements from VMware. And that kinda feels weird. We knew already that vSphere 6.0 U1 would be after VMWorld, but I would still have expected something big. But that wasn’t to be, and that kinda leaves me with a weird feeling.

The partnering with Microsoft in the project called A2, seems to usher in a new more friendly alliance with Microsoft. Which we as costumers really would look forward to. Especially if this moves beyond just A2, but into SQL, Exchange and others.

One of the few new things that was announced was VSAN Stretched clusters, where you know can geographically disperse your data centers with VSAN handling the Active-Active replication of data. The former 3 node cluster needed can now be a 2 node cluster with a 3rd witness node, that doesn’t require a license. All in all it looks pretty much like a VPLEX solution, in software.Looks very nice and I can see the potential use case in Robo or segmentation scenarios. VSAN now also comes in an all Flash variation, that looks to perform very nicely. Be aware however that all flash requires an additional license.

I sat in on a PernixData session that Frank Denneman held about FVP and their newest product Architecht. Architecht uses PernixData’s kernel module to extract all manner of statistics about your storage. Can show you the different block sizes that your VM’s use, and even tell you which VM’s have misaligned storage (less than 4k blocks). This gives you all the stats you ever asked the application owners about. How many IOPS does your application require, what block size do you need etc. Very nice piece of software, that I can’t wait to check out when I get home again.

Thank you very much vCommunity for making this a very nice VMworld again. This one was my 6th.

VMworld T-shirts Giveback – What to do!

Again this year after collecting a ton of T-shirts many of which I don’t want to wear, I’ve decided to give them away to the homeless people in San Francisco. Same goes for the big amount of Drinking Canteens I’ve collected.

And I must say, its somewhat harder to actually get them to accept gifts if you approach them instead of the other way around.But once you do get them to accept the T-shirts they are very grateful for the help. So instead of just throwing away T-shirts or drinking Canteens do think of the people who could use it.

But don’t be surprised if you see homeless people in T-shirts from your or another company.