By Shawn Bass, chief technology officer, desktop technologies, End-User Computing, VMware
Leading up to VMworld US event in San Francisco, I posted a blog covering my Top 10 must see End-User Computing related sessions for the event in San Francisco. With VMworld Europe just over a week away, I thought it would be a great opportunity to share my thoughts on the sessions that I’m the most excited about for this VMworld in Barcelona.
I’ll be at the VMworld Europe event meeting with key customers and partners as well as presenting. I hope to see all of you there.
Here’s a list of the top 10 sessions I’m excited about at VMworld Europe along with a little detail on why I think these sessions are very relevant.
EUC6807 – The Future of End-User Computing
Tuesday 12:30pm – 1:30 pm
Join several of VMware EUC’s business unit leaders as they share insights on where End-User Computing services are headed in the future and how VMware’s offerings are adapting to changing business drivers.
EUC4561 – Application Lifecycle Management with VMware Horizon
Thursday 10:30am – 11:30am
VMware EUC has a broad portfolio of products that cover all use cases for delivery of end-user computing needs. Sometimes the great variety of choices that we provide can be confusing to know which product/solution fits which use case. This breakout session led by two super smart European resources helps to answer those questions and also covers the pro’s and con’s of each approach.
EUC5573 – Introducing Project Enzo
Wednesday 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Project Enzo is a recently announced bold initiative by VMware EUC to simplify the setup and management of Virtual Desktops and Applications. It is focused on reducing both the capital costs of a virtual desktop solution and simplifying the operational management of virtual desktops which is a large pain point for many organizations. Enzo combines several technologies like Instant Clone (Project Fargo), App Volumes, VMware UEM, etc. to create a single pane of management glass for on-premises or cloud hosted virtual desktops.
EUC5802 – A Technical Deep Dive on VMware Horizon 6.x Performance and Best Practices
Thursday 1:30pm – 2:30pm
Having spent 20 years doing large scale design and architecture of EUC solutions, I’m always keenly interested in attending technical sessions especially when they cover best practices. For anyone out there who is designing and maintaining VMware Horizon environments, this is a must attend session.
EUC6105 – What’s New in VMware Identity Manager
Tuesday 12:30pm – 1:30pm
VMware Identity Manager is a key component of an end-user computing service delivery strategy. Our vIDM solution provides an entry point for aggregation of applications whether Windows apps, Windows Desktops or Web/SaaS applications and vIDM also provides you with single sign on to those resources. There’s been a lot of change to the vIDM solution recently, so this is an important session to attend to get the inside scoop on all the new changes.
EUC5622 – Mobile Device Management or Container: Do We Have to Choose?
Wednesday 3:30pm – 4:30pm
Customers are often confused about the differences between mobile device management and sandboxed container solutions. There are reasons for both to exist for different use cases and there are pro’s and con’s of each approach. Attend this session to learn about the differences in the approaches and choose the best scenario for your needs.
EUC5434 – Beyond the Marketing: VMware App Volumes Technical Overview
Wednesday 11:00am – 12:00pm
VMware App Volumes was first announced at VMworld 2014 as an acquisition of CloudVolumes, which was later renamed to App Volumes. It is one of the most exciting technologies within VMware EUC and it’s driving a significant amount of VMware Horizon Enterprise sales as well as being quite successful as an add-on to our competitor’s technologies. This technology is a key driver to getting customers away from persistent virtual desktop technologies and move towards non-persistent virtual desktops. This is a key aspect in reducing cost and improving management as well as improving security of virtual desktops.
EUC5404 – Deliver High-Performance Desktops with VMware Horizon and NVIDIA GRID vGPU
Tuesday 11:00am – 12:00pm
I have long been a supporter of GPU technologies in virtual desktops as it seems clear to me that GPUs in a virtual desktop is not a question of if, but a question of when you’ll be using these technologies. Every single endpoint device whether a desktop/laptop or tablet/smartphone has a GPU. Virtual Desktops on the other hand often do not contain a GPU and as a result cannot always provide the same level of user experience that a user would have locally. This session will provide details on GPU enhanced virtual desktops and is something that everyone should take a look at when deciding on a virtual desktop strategy.
EUC5062 – Your Desktops Secured: What Can NSX Do for You?
Wednesday 11:00am – 12:00pm
VMware NSX is one of those technologies that has many purposes, but specifically in the context of EUC, the micro-segmentation capabilities allow an organization the ability to greatly reduce the risk of East-West data center communications within a virtual desktop environment. This provides a security benefit which can greatly reduce the exposure when a machine has been compromised. This technology approach provides something that can be accomplished in a virtualized world that is unmatched in the physical desktop world.
For the last of my Top 10 sessions, I would probably be silly if I didn’t include my own session that I’m presenting at VMworld.
EUC5909 – VMware’s End User Computing (EUC) Strategy into 2015 and Beyond
Thursday 10:30am – 11:30am
This session is a panel discussion on VMware’s End User Computing strategy for 2015 and beyond. We’ll be covering a variety of topics related to Application Packaging and Delivery, Common Capture and Application Cloaking, Workspace Environment Management, VMware User Environment Management and more.
