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Netherlands VMUG UserCon opened my eyes to how important it is for us in the VMUG community to take notice of how rapidly our industry is changing. Across many of the presentations I attended at UserCon, the necessity to evolve was a universal theme. Here are some of my insights from those sessions. The Keynote: VMware’s Transition to an aaS Model Kit Colbert, CTO, VMware Cloud Platform Business Unit, deliver ed the keynote presentation about VMware’s transition to an “as a Service” (aaS) model. This is a big change that is a ffecting VMware and its customers, and I appreciate their efforts to be more transparent about this restructuring.   With the move to an aaS model, we as vAdmins must be open to changes. During the keynote, Kit made a powerful statement, “No one wins by managing their VMware environment well. You win by differentiating yourself from your competitors.” I tweeted this out and it started a conversation throughout the worldwide VMUG community about how th

Photo Credit: Kaz Igarashi Recently, I was honored to be the keynote speaker at the VMUG Japan UserCon. While in Tokyo, I experienced VMUG hospitality on a new level from both longtime friends and newcomers to the VMUG community. Japan UserCon had countless great moments and activities, two in particular stuck out: the lightning round presentations and the peer-to-peer mentorship within the community. Lightning Round Presentations This year I had the privilege of judging the annual Japan UserCon Lightning Rounds. Community leaders manage subcommittees, and each committee presents a 15-minute discussion on topics such as vSAN, VDI, and Hybrid Cloud, allowing the wider audience of attendees to digest niche topics in an easily understandable format. While the concept of subcommittees is not new, these short “lightning rounds” by community members with specific expertise are lively, detailed, and prove to be very effective. One thing I found particularly interesting is that the subc

Register here:  https://bit.ly/2VWUXBQ Professional Development and continuing education are top of mind for VMUG members. According to the annual VMUG Member Survey, professional development was ranked #1 most important reason for being involved with VMUG over the past two years. One way to keep your technical skills sharp is by attending VMware’s vForum Online on April 24th. This half-day event is from 11:30 am – 4:30 pm CT. Pat Gelsinger will be the keynote speaker of this event and he always does a fantastic job of sharing his knowledge of VMware and the industry. I always enjoy hearing Pat speak and that’s one of the reasons I recommend you attend. Following the keynote, there will be multiple breakout sessions. These are tagged so you can find the content you need. Cloud and data center, network and security, and digital workspace are different tracks you can choose, or mix and match based on the sessions you find most beneficial. There will also be “Chat with Experts”