VMworld 2015 has come to an end, and I'm just now starting to get re-acclimated to being back in Austin, TX and the Central Time Zone.  My room at the Intercontinental Hotel in San Francisco was fantastic as always; but waking up every morning at 3:30AM like clockwork was a bit much.  Thanks a lot Pacific Time Zone!

If you followed our VMworld 2015 coverage, you've already seen a number of great video interviews at various vendor booths during the show.  But stay tuned, we aren't finished yet -- more are on the way!

During the show, I was able to meet up with a number of great vendors who provided me with excellent product overviews of their technology.  For most regular attendees, one of the best parts of VMworld is the networking - and I got introduced to some really passionate employees this year and had some really interesting conversations on the show floor.  But I was also fortunate to walk away with some exclusive vExpert gifts being handed out by many of these same vendors.

I wanted to again say thanks to each of those companies -- this time, in the written word. 

First up, thanks to DataGravity. 

Prior to VMworld, these guys sent out vExpert Polo shirts which came in VERY handy as it gave me a wardrobe break on Sunday, allowing me to wear my VMblog branded polo shirts the rest of the week.

Great looking, comfortable polo.  Nice touch adding the "7 time vExpert" on the sleeve!  Thanks again.

These guys have come up with a data-aware storage platform that will change how you manage your data, and gain actionable insights from that data.  It starts with a simple premise: "You deserve to know what's in your data."  Becoming data-aware is about taking inventory and making use of its contents.  If you haven't checked them out yet, please do so, you won't be disappointed:  http://datagravity.com/

 

Catalogic Software

VMworld 2015 was the first time for me to get exposed to Catalogic Software.  The company offered up a nice gift to vExperts which seemed to do the trick, because during my visit, I bumped into at least three other vExperts and long time VMware community friends of mine who were also making the rounds within the company's booth. 

I also made a new connection -- Tom Grave (Thanks Tom!), the company's VP of Marketing -- We had a great conversation, and then I received a really nice walk-thru of the product.

Catalogic helps clients manage, orchestrate and analyze their copy data across the enterprise and cloud in support of mission critical IT functions including disaster recovery, test/dev, DevOps, next generation data protection, and business analytics.  You can learn more at the company's Website: http:www.catalogicsoftware.com.

FYI, I'm still fighting my kids over the Bluetooth wireless speaker (but winning), thanks guys!

 

Cohesity

Aloha and Mahalo nui loa to Cohesity! 

In June, the company launched out of stealth mode with a war chest of $70 million.  And at their Oasis booth at VMworld, the company was showing off the product they say "brings order to data chaos."  To do that, Cohesity takes aim at the inefficient, fractured landscape of secondary storage for data protection, development and analytics by applying a distributed, web-scale architecture to break down data silos.  Its solution converges all secondary storage workflows onto an intelligent, infinitely scalable data platform so customers can store and protect data seamlessly, use it efficiently, and learn from it instantly.

I walked away with some interesting information and a vExpert Hawaiian print shirt.  Although I did miss out on the complementary massage they were giving... which I sorely needed two days after visiting the booth on Sunday.

You can find out more by visiting their Website: http://www.cohesity.com

 

Coho Data

Just prior to VMworld, Coho Data announced integration of Docker containers and microservice orchestration support to allow third-party applications to run directly within its customers' enterprise storage systems.  This new container-converged storage system turns traditional enterprise storage into a fully integrated data platform that adapts to efficiently fit the rapidly changing needs of today's enterprise environments.  Sounded interesting!  And after visiting their booth, it proved to be so.

In addition to learning something new, these guys also helped support the growing hunger for "things" at VMworld and quickly helped to fill the belly of vExperts.

Thanks to Coho Data for the VMworld Survival Kit!  It came in handy once again throughout the show.

Visit their Website to learn more: http://www.cohodata.com/

 

SimpliVity

If you read my VMworld Planning Tips, you may have noticed the section where I talked about San Francisco temperatures dropping as the evening time approaches.  And yes, during VMworld 2015, it again went from hot during the day to windy and cold at night.  Hopefully some of you took my advice - advice that I myself failed to follow as I packed luggage filled with short sleeve polo shirts.

Fortunate for me, the good folks at SimpliVity were offering vExperts an exclusive hoodie that you had to sign up for in advance of the show.  I at least had the foresight to do that.  So, while I may have ignored my own advice about packing something for the cooler nights in San Francisco, I did end up with a very nice, well branded hoodie that did the trick!  Thanks again guys.

SimpliVity plays in the hyperconverged infrastructure market, delivering enterprise-class performance and availability into a simple 2U building block of x86 sharable resources. The company's unique data virtualization architecture improves performance, protection and data efficiency, while also enabling global unified management from a single console.  Check them out to learn more:  https://www.simplivity.com/

 

Tegile Systems

Over these last few years, I've gotten to know Tegile quite well.  They have some amazing storage technology; and each year that I meet up with Rob Commins to talk shop, I walk away with a renewed interest in what these guys are accomplishing.  This year was no exception.  Rob also introduced me to one of their partners, SanDisk, to learn even more.  We captured part of that Tegile and SanDisk update in a video as well.

If you were at the show, I'd be surprised if you didn't visit the Tegile booth yourself.  It was always jam packed as people were lined up in huge clusters to have a chance at winning the Audi car that was parked smack dab in the middle of their booth!

You can learn more about Tegile by watching this video, or by visiting their Website: http://www.tegile.com/

Thanks again for offering a vExperts Tegile Tile... though I will never admit to "losing" or "misplacing" anything prior to owning a Tile.

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Well, those were the vExpert offers that made their way into my VMworld 2012 bag this year.  I'd like to thank those vendors once more for their generosity and continued support and recognition of the vExpert group and the virtualization community at-large.