VMworld 2016 is a few days away!  The party comes back to fabulous Las Vegas this year, which should shake things up compared to San Francisco.  Read our VMworld 2016 Survival Guide to learn more about how to prepare for the event.

In addition to all the great education and networking that will take place at VMworld, attendees have also become accustomed to having fun as well.  So far, things are shaping up nicely on that front.  While the number of parties as of yet don't seem to equal those of the last couple of years, there are still plenty of opportunities to have a good time!  And the list will hopefully continue to grow. So stay tuned and keep watch!

NOTE: Most events require you to take some signup action.  Yes, even the free events.  And watch out, because not all events are free.  

Time is of the essence.  If you're looking for a party, sign up as soon as you can, because they do have limits to the number of people.  So, first come, first served.

If I'm missing an event, drop me an email or send me a Tweet (@vmblog) and I'll get it added.  Or leave a comment below.

[ Also read VMworld 2016: Getting Started and What to Expect | VMworld 2016 Survival Guide - Tips and Takeaways | 25 VMworld 2016 Sessions that won't suck ]   

Enjoy!

What Does Turbonomic Have Planned for VMworld 2016? 

As part of VMblog's live VMworld 2016 coverage coming up next week, we're in the final stretch of finalizing our schedule.  As we do so, one thing is clear: We're extremely excited to visit the Solutions Expo this year and make it a huge part of our plans.  But with so many vendors exhibiting, how do you know which booths to visit and who to get on your schedule?

One of my "must see" companies is definitely Turbonomic.  No, this isn't a new company.  They have been active in the virtualization and cloud community for many years, but you might better know them as VMTurbo.  In case you missed the news a week ago, VMTurbo rebranded themselves as Turbonomic.  New name, same vision.  They've earned a place on my must see list because every year at VMworld, they find a way to outdo themselves.  And this year, they told me they are going even bigger than last year!  More about the company:

Turbonomic’s Autonomic Platform enables heterogeneous environments to self-manage to assure the performance of any application in any cloud. Turbonomic’s patented decision engine dynamically analyzes application demand and allocates shared resources in real time to maintain a continuous state of application health. Launched in 2010, Turbonomic is one of the fastest growing technology companies in the virtualization and cloud space. Turbonomic’s Autonomic Platform is trusted by thousands of enterprises to accelerate their adoption of virtual, cloud, and container deployments for all mission critical applications.

Read this exclusive pre-show interview with Turbonomic to learn what they have planned for the upcoming VMworld 2016 event.

What Does Lakeside Software Have Planned for VMworld 2016? 

As part of VMblog's live VMworld 2016 coverage coming up later this month, we're in the process of working up our schedules to make sure we can see and learn as much as possible when the show kicks off.  And we're extremely excited to visit the Solutions Expo this year.  But with so many vendors exhibiting, how do you know which booths to visit and who to get on your schedule?

One of my "must see" companies this year is Lakeside Software.  I had a chance to catch up with their team at Citrix Synergy, and they were showcasing some amazing stuff around their flagship product, SysTrack.  I can't wait to see what they are showing off at VMworld.  More about the company:

Lakeside Software transforms the way that enterprises deploy, manage, secure, improve, and report on end user experience by coupling the world's most lightweight agent with a robust data analysis engine to instantly grant complete visibility and control to administrators without impacting end user experience.  Lakeside empowers EUC teams with comprehensive end user analytics and endpoint telemetry, enabling them to optimize user experience, mitigate risk, minimize cost, automate operational tasks, and make better decisions.

Read our exclusive pre-show interview with Lakeside to learn what they have planned for the upcoming VMworld 2016 event.

What Does Liquidware Labs Have Planned for VMworld 2016? 

As part of VMblog's live VMworld 2016 coverage coming up later this month, we're in the process of working up our schedules to make sure we can see and learn as much as possible when the show kicks off.  And we're extremely excited to visit the Solutions Expo this year.  But with so many vendors exhibiting, how do you know which booths to visit and who to get on your schedule?

One of my "must see" companies has always been Liquidware Labs.  These guys started back in 2009 and have a great pedigree when it comes to virtualization solutions.  And as you'll find out, these guys are constantly innovating.  Whether Citrix Synergy or VMworld, this team never disappoints with showing me something new.  More about the company:

Liquidware Labs is an industry leader and pioneer in desktop virtualization solutions for next-generation physical and virtual desktops, including VMware View, Citrix XenDesktop, Red Hat and Microsoft Windows. The company's innovative and award-winning products include Stratusphere FIT and Stratusphere UX  for desktop visibility; ProfileUnity with FlexApp and FlexDisk for desktop portability; and Flex-IO which supports IOPS acceleration in non-persistent VDI environments. Learn more about the Liquidware Labs Difference.

Read our exclusive pre-show interview with Liquidware Labs to learn what they have planned for the upcoming VMworld 2016 event.

What Does Stratodesk Have Planned for VMworld 2016? 

As part of VMblog's live VMworld 2016 coverage coming up in less than two weeks, we're in the process of working up our schedules to make sure we can see and learn as much as possible when the show kicks off.  And we're extremely excited to visit the Solutions Expo this year.  But with so many vendors exhibiting, how do you know which booths to visit and who to get on your schedule?

One of the companies on our "must see" list this year is Stratodesk.  Perhaps you know them best by their polar bear logo?  These guys started back in 2010 with a focus on hardware agnostic thin client software and PC repurposing solutions.  The company partners with many industry leaders in the virtualization and server-based computing world, companies such as: VMware, Citrix, Dell, Cortado, HP and more.  The company's flagship product is called "NoTouch Desktop."  More about the company:

Stratodesk's signature product is NoTouch Desktop. Stratodesk's mission is to provide the most powerful and simple to use endpoint OS for VMware, Citrix and other VDI environments and a centralized endpoint management solution. NoTouch Desktop works on any kind of old and new desktop hardware (PCs, Laptops, Thin Client devices) and offer more security, better and easier client management, increased reliability and lower total cost of ownership to companies of all sizes. Stratodesk is led by an excellent management team, has a history and a tremendous track-record as a first-class supplier for enterprises as well as small business.

Read our exclusive pre-show interview with Stratodesk to learn what they have planned for the upcoming VMworld 2016 event.

What Does StorMagic Have Planned for VMworld 2016? 

As part of VMblog's live VMworld 2016 coverage coming up in a few weeks, we're in the process of working up our schedules to make sure we can see and learn as much as possible when the show kicks off.  And we're extremely excited to visit the Solutions Expo this year.  But with so many vendors exhibiting, how do you know which booths to visit and who to get on your schedule?

One of the companies on our "must see" list this year may be new to some VMblog readers -- StorMagic.  However, this company has been around for quite some time, founded in 2006 by two experienced storage entrepreneurs... they had a vision to find the simplest, most cost-effective way to manage storage infrastructure through software.  More about the company:

StorMagic delivers innovative software-defined storage solutions that empower organizations to virtualize their storage and deliver very significant improvements in flexibility, efficiency and performance. Organizations using SvSAN range from small enterprises with one location to some of the world's largest corporations with SvSAN installed in thousands of sites. We give our customers, large and small, the flexibility to customize and optimize their hardware architecture to meet their specific application and data needs. We make it simple for them to centrally manage and scale their data storage architecture, so that they can focus on running their business.

Read our exclusive pre-show interview with StorMagic to learn what they have planned for the upcoming VMworld 2016 event.

What Does Unitrends Have Planned for VMworld 2016? 

As part of VMblog's live VMworld 2016 coverage coming up in a few weeks, we're in the process of working up our schedules to make sure we can see and learn as much as possible when the show kicks off.  And we're extremely excited to visit the Solutions Expo!  But with so many vendors exhibiting, how do you know which booths to visit and who to get on your schedule?

One of the companies on my "must see" list is Unitrends.  They are a market leader when it comes to enterprise-level cloud-empowered business continuity solutions.  And if you want to get to know them better, you could always try out their free backup and recovery software being provided to the virtualization community.  Unitrends Free is free backup software that quickly deploys as a virtual appliance in VMware vSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V environments.  More about the company:

Unitrends delivers award-winning business recovery solutions for any IT environment. The company’s portfolio of virtual, physical, and cloud solutions provides adaptive protection for organizations globally. To address the complexities facing today’s modern data center, Unitrends delivers end-to-end protection and instant recovery of all virtual and physical assets as well as automated disaster recovery testing built for virtualization.

Read our exclusive pre-show interview with Unitrends to learn what they have planned for the upcoming VMworld 2016 event.

What Does SolarWinds Have Planned for VMworld 2016? 

As part of VMblog's live VMworld 2016 coverage coming up in a few weeks, we're in the process of working up our schedules to make sure we can see and learn as much as possible when the show kicks off.  VMworld is the leading virtualization event, and there is no shortage of great information coming out of the keynotes, the breakout sessions, the networking and more.  But every year, one of the key places to learn a lot in a short amount of time is the Solutions Expo where valuable vendors from the VMware ecosystem and beyond set up shop to display their wares. 

Over the years, VMworld has always had a large turnout of vendors sponsoring the event.  And the expo floor always seems massive!  With so many vendors exhibiting, how do you know which booths to visit and who to get on your schedule?

One of those companies on my schedule is SolarWinds.  They are known in the IT industry for providing powerful and affordable IT management software.  Virtualization administrators know or need to know about Virtualization Manager, a monitoring and management solution that helps with optimizing, identifying and remediating VMware and Hyper-V issues.  Definitely get them on your must see list to learn more about this virtualization management software and their other cloud and IT related tools that you might want to include in your toolkit. 

SolarWinds provides powerful and affordable IT management software to customers worldwide from Fortune 500 enterprises to small businesses, government agencies and educational institutions. We are committed to focusing exclusively on IT Pros, and strive to eliminate the complexity that they have been forced to accept from traditional enterprise software vendors. Regardless of where the IT asset or user sits, SolarWinds delivers products that are easy to find, buy, use, maintain, and scale while providing the power to address all key areas of the infrastructure from on-premises to the Cloud.

Read this exclusive pre-show interview with SolarWinds to learn what they have planned for the upcoming VMworld 2016 event.

What Does Veeam Have Planned for VMworld 2016? 

As part of VMblog's live VMworld 2016 coverage coming up in a few weeks, we're in the process of working up our schedules to make sure we can see and learn as much as possible when the show kicks off.  VMworld is the leading virtualization event, and there is no shortage of great information coming out of the keynotes, the breakout sessions, the networking and more.  But every year, one of the key places to learn a lot in a short amount of time is the Solutions Expo where valuable vendors from the VMware ecosystem and beyond set up shop to display their wares. 

Over the years, VMworld has always had a large turnout of vendors sponsoring the event.  And the expo floor always seems massive!  With so many vendors exhibiting, how do you know which booths to visit and who to get on your schedule?

Like many of you reading this, I've known and followed Veeam for many, many years.  But if you don't yet know or follow Veeam, do!  VMworld is the perfect opportunity to meet them up close and personal.  For most VMware admins, Veeam is probably one of those ecosystem vendors who popped up on the radar screen pretty quickly.  I've become friends with many of their team members over the years, and I've also had the pleasure and been fortunate enough to get to know Ratmir Timashev, one of the most passionate and down to Earth CEOs I've ever met.  Together, this team and company have transformed VMware backup into what they today call "Availability for the Always-On Enterprise."  Oh, and if you're looking for a VMware 2016 Party to attend, Veeam has been one of the premiere party events the last few years, hands down.

Veeam recognizes the new challenges companies across the globe face in enabling the Always-On Enterprise, a business that must operate 24.7.365. To address this, Veeam has pioneered a new market of Availability for the Always-On Enterprise by helping organizations meet recovery time and point objectives (RTPO) of less than 15 minutes for all applications and data, through a fundamentally new kind of solution that delivers high-speed recovery, data loss avoidance, verified recoverability, leveraged data and complete visibility. Veeam Availability Suite, which includes Veeam Backup & Replication, leverages virtualization, storage, and cloud technologies that enable the modern data center to help organizations save time, mitigate risks, and dramatically reduce capital and operational costs, while always supporting the current and future business goals of Veeam customers.

Read this exclusive pre-show interview with Veeam to learn what they have planned for the upcoming VMworld 2016 event.

VMworld 2016 is only weeks away.  In case you've signed up to attend but fell asleep somewhere along the way, please know that this year's VMworld Content Catalog is (and has been since July 19th) available!  So, if you haven't already done so, go get your schedulin' on.  

I've gone through the entire content catalog (a few times for different reasons) and selected a number of sessions that bubbled up to the top for me -- self-identifying them as what looks like highly relevant and educational sessions (in no particular order or ranking system).  These sessions cut across various aspects of the overarching world we live in -- virtualization, cloud, containers, DevOps, HCI, storage, NSX, etc.

Obviously, this list is pretty long and one person wouldn't be able to necessarily attend all of these as we talked about in the VMworld 2016 Survival Guide.  However, if you're on the fence and still looking around, you might want to consider a few of these sessions.  Take a look and see if any of these fit the bill for your schedule.

Enjoy the show!