Article Written by VMblog Reporter, Brian Ducharme

My day began at 5:15 am this morning, followed by a 2½ hour drive to Brunswick, ME for the annual NEVMUG Summer Slam. This event has grown over the years from a small group of virtualization enthusiasts to a group of over 850 IT professionals looking to learn the latest and greatest technologies and services around what has now become known as the cloud (or in this case vCloud).

I decided to start my day with a keynote "Hitting the vCloud - Practical Steps to a Bullseye" by none other than Hans Bernhardt. Hans has been a staple of the summer slam for years as one of the original employees of VMware and the now famous "virtual Chicken", which he still hands out at every event. In his presentation he attempted to take us from the early days of virtual machines through to what is now vCloud by showing the innovations that led to user problems, which led to new solutions, which led to other user problems, which led to still more solutions.... You get the idea. This cycle of "manual to automatic" is what developed VMware into what it is today. Hans did a great job (as always) of making it easy to understand and follow.

Next, was a presentation by Aaron Chaisson of EMC called "IT in the Era of Googlezon" where he explained the differences between public and private clouds and what scenarios are the most cost effective for each type of cloud. He also went into the importance of having a proper front end architecture in place so that you can seamlessly switch between public and private clouds without having to change your management tool (vCloud Connector). His presentation was well put together and interesting to listen to.

After a short break and a tasty lunch I attended a breakout session called "Virtualization 101" presented by Dan Mitchell, a virtualization veteran and author of "VMware vSphere for Dummies". Dan has been a part of 3 different companies who have all become acquired by VMware. His presentation was a great complimentary continuation of Hans Bernhardt's earlier presentation. Dan showed us in depth how all the pieces fit together and what they are used for. Even though I myself am a virtualization veteran it was a good refresher course on the VMware product line.

The afternoon was filled with over 26 vendor breakout sessions set up into 4 time slots. With so many choices it was tough deciding which sessions to attend.  One of the most interesting sessions I decided to check out was "Utilizing Cloud Technology to Support BYOD, NAC, and Compliance" presented by Rick Leclerc of WCA-Whalley.  One of my biggest takeaways from this session was an app called "Good" (http://www.good.com) which brings robust security and  remote management of apps and documents on iOS, Android, and Windows Phone Platforms.  Using this app an IT manager can control which apps a user has access to and can remotely wipe documents or apps from their mobile devices.  This is a great solution for the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) issue that many companies face as mobile device sprawl continues to invade the workplace.

Following an afternoon of sessions the conference ended with an evolved version of Hans Bernhardt's now infamous "Virtual Chicken" presentation where he relates virtualization to rubber chickens.  The closing remarks included a chance for users to ask questions to a panel of experts (Stump the Chumps) interspersed with prize giveaways from the vendors and event sponsors.

Next, was the mad dash for the door as 850 attendees raced to be the first to make it to where the fun really begins, Gritty's!

The tradition continued this year with the famous Gritty's "Lobstah" Bake, where over a thousand lobsters meet their end.   In addition to lobster there was steak, steamed clams, corn-on-the-cob, make your own tacos, and enough beer to give you a hangover that will last for weeks.  This is where everyone cuts loose and the socializing begins. 

Gritty's is the perfect end to a day full of sessions and is really what makes this event so great.  Attendees share stories, make memories and new friends that will last a lifetime.