The count down to VMWorld 09

The etherspace has been busy with highlights, tips, and expectations of VMWorld 09 taking place at the Moscone center in SF starting August 31. I’d like to chime in and highlight technology areas that I’ll be focusing on while I’m there next week.

Cisco Unified Computing System (UCS)

Cisco’s entry into the server computing realm by providing a platform that unifies network, compute, storage access, and virtualization resources. A “wall of UCS” at VMWorld will showcase 16 racks containing 64 chassis, 512 blades, 4096 cores, & 24 TB of memory. This is where the VMWorld labs are run out of and it is expected that ~1500 users will be accessing the UCS systems at any given time through VMware View.

Here’s a video of what the rack looks like at the Moscone:

VMware View and Cisco WAAS

As remote desktop technologies gain adoption throughout enterprises, Cisco’s WAAS & ACE products ensure availability & performance when users access their remote desktop images through VMware View. There will be a theatre presentation on how to “Optimize Availability and Performance of VMware View” at the Cisco booth 2118. You’ll likely find me lurking around in that area.

Enterprise Applications Reference Architectures

It’s all about the applications isn’t it! At the end of the day, we design our Data Center environments to facilitate the delivery of applications to our users. I’ll be paying attention to reference architecture / discussions on applications (ie. SharePoint, Exchange, SQL) running in a virtualized environment with VMware, Cisco, EMC, and NetApp.

Virtual Data Center Security

Virtualization introduces added security considerations in the Data Center. I wonder how virtual infrastructure can be leveraged to deliver security in a pervasive, persistent, and scalable manner. There’s a panel discussion on “Securing the Virtual Data Center in Enterprises and Clouds” with representatives from Cisco, VMware, RSA, & Gartner. I think it’ll be interesting to hear the questions & concerned raised.