There’s less than a week until VMworld 2014 opens. Pure, like all of the event sponsors, is racing to wrap up our technical sessions, community events and high-touch VIP engagements. VMworld provides a wealth of technical education, introduces innovative products and shares industry direction.
The wealth of activities can make it difficult to plan one’s itinerary; however, I’d like to recommend a few activities that I believe are truly unique and shouldn’t be missed. If your schedule has an opening, register now before it’s too late.
The 5th Annual vOdgeball Charity Tournament
Sunday, 3:00pm
Gene Friend Rec Center, 270 6th St, San Francisco, CA 94103
Hashtag: #vOdgeball
In 5 short years, this event has grown from 2 teams to 20 battling it out to raise donations for the Wounded Warrior Project. EMC is the event host and Pure Storage is providing beverages and the music! Join the 500+ expected and root for your favorite team to dodge, dip, dive, duck and dodge!
This year’s line up includes EMC, Pure Storage, Denali, CohoData, NetApp, SMP, EMCElect, CloudBunnies, Egnyte, vExperts, Varrow, RuddyDucks, vDB, Juniper, Arista, Brocade, Nutanix, VMUG, Cap Gemini and one more yet to be announced.
The vExpert Storage Game Show
Monday, 12:30pm
VMworld session #STO2996
Hashtag: #vExpertGameShow
Two members of the audience will join teams from VMware and Pure Storage in a Jeopardy-style game of VMware storage knowledge. In addition, audience members will participate live and via Twitter. The Master of Ceremonies is John Troyer who will be joined by judges Amy Lewis and Friea Berg as they try to reign in the chaos of Rawlinson Rivera, Cody Hosterman, Corman Hogan, Craig Chapman, Duncan Epping and yours truly.
vSphere Storage Best Practices: Next-Gen Storage Technologies
Tuesday, 5:00pm (repeat session scheduled due to demand – Wednesday, 11:00am)
VMworld session #STO2496
Hast tag: #STO2496
Chad Sakac of EMC and I once again put away our vendor biases to review and consider implementation guidelines for a umber of new and emerging storage technologies with VMware. This session has been a long standing favorite of VMworld attendees and this year we will have a few subject matter experts join us to take the conversations even deeper. No product pitches, no marketing, all tech.
The VMworld Party
Wednesday, 7:00pm
Hashtag: #VMworldParty
Nothing on Wednesday can trump the (rumored) Black Keys headlining this year’s party!
Evolve
Thursday, 1:30pm (following the close of VMworld)
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater, 700 Howard Street, San Francisco, CA 94103
Hashtag: #EVOLVE
An IT innovation conference featuring keynotes from Mendel Rosenblum and Diane Greene, presentations from Karthik Ramasay at Twitter and Adrian Cockroft at Battery Ventures (former Architect at Netflix) and comedy from Jay Pharoah of Saturday Night Live. In addition, there will be technical sessions by Pure Storage, VMware, Citrix and MongoDB, a partner pavilion, food and drinks.
If this isn’t enough for you, why not sign up for a VIP briefing with one of the Pure Storage virtualization experts (including yours truly). We’ll be talking flash for clouds, VVOLs, our roadmap, and much more. We’ve made additional slots available so sign up ASAP as these openings won’t last.
Oh and if you’d like to see what 4,000 NERF Blasters look like… stop by the Pure booth (#1613) and check out our sessions.