Join your fellow virtualization professionals for an independent networking event. vBeers is designed to be a vendor agnostic, independent event that allows IT pros to get together, network and talk without the influence of the vendors we all get pushed. With a few of the local gurus just returning from Citrix Synergy and some great new releases from VMware and Microsoft there will be plenty to talk about.
Location: RFD Chinatown
Address: 810 7th St NW, Washington, DC
Date: May 23, 2012
Time: 5-8 PM
Visit the vBeers website to register for the event (It’s free, just need to get a count of who is coming!) — Link here: http://www.vbeers.org/2012/04/23/vbeers-dc-23-may-2012/
One of the things I’ve really enjoyed since joining Clearpath Solutions Group is participating in our learning events. Coming from the customer side, I didn’t get out to learn and interact with the community as often as I would have liked. With the incredible rate of innovation in IT and paradigm shifting technologies like virtualization, cloud computing, & Everything-as-a-Service, it is increasingly important to take a break from the day-to-day and pause to re-imagine what you could and should be doing to prepare for the next wave of technology. Events like the VMware User Group (VMUG), the VMware Virtualization Forum (coming to Washington, DC on June 19, 2012), and Clearpath’s Lunch & Learn’s are a great way to get out and get educated while having some fun.
Clearpath’s next big event will be in Baltimore, on Tuesday, May 29, 2012 at M&T Bank Stadium (Ravens Stadium). Together with VMware, Cisco, and EMC, we’ll discuss private cloud technologies from EMC, VMware and Cisco, along with complimentary cloud computing services for disaster recovery, virtual desktops and infrastructure services. Learn what a hybrid cloud strategy can do for your IT operations and budget. You’ll learn about technologies that are available for immediate deployment and impact. Expect a bit of hands on with gear from Cisco (Unified Computing System – UCS) and EMC (VNX arrays), as well as product demo’s from VMware (vSphere, View, and vCloud Director).
A light lunch will be provided followed later by an appetizer and cocktail hour towards to the conclusion of the event. PLUS - The event will include a tour of the stadium and special appearance with autograph signing from Ravens Wide Receiver, Torrey Smith. There will also be raffle prizes and giveaways including a trip to VMworld 2012 in San Francisco with hotel and airfare paid for!
Space is limited! Sign up for this special event today!
Planning for the Cloud | Event Details:
Date: Tuesday, May 29th, 2012
Time: 1 – 7:30 pm
Location: M&T Bank Stadium
1101 Russell Street, Baltimore, MD
Register for the event at Clearpath’s website here: http://clearpathsg.com/planning-for-the-cloud
I recently presented at a couple of Clearpath Solutions Group Lunch & Learn style events that focused on VMware View and touched on many of the components of VMware’s growing End User Computing portfolio. The presentation walked attendees through the concept of VDI, why it matters, and how IT groups can leverage desktop virtualization to transform from an or organization servicing devices (legacy desktops) to an organization that delivers services (apps & data) to users.
A few key points that I wanted to call out from the presentation are:
- Cloud is both a journey & a destination (and an overused buzz word). Desktop virtualization is the beanstalk in the cloud-provided end user computing environment – it let’s us climb from an environment rooted in Windows to the cloud.
- Desktop virtualization acts as a decoupling agent between the OS and apps/data that users really want.
- Desktop virtualization provides a reset button for IT, allowing us to re-imagine, reclaim, and redeploy IT assets (people, equipment & budget).
- Desktop virtualization changes the economics of end-user computing from CapEx to OpEx, preparing way for consumption-based cloud models.
I’ve embedded the presentation below (I originally built it in PowerPoint and converted it to SlideRocket – some of the slides and animations didn’t import well). I’m happy to do a WebEx of the presentation if you want to learn more.
If you have questions or want to learn more about how View can fit in your environment feel free to reach out. If you are local to Washington DC, Virgina, or Maryland watch for upcoming Clearpath events here: http://clearpathsg.com/calendar.
VMware released an update to VMware Workstation 8.0.3 Build 703057 yesterday (May 3, 2012). The update is a security update addresses two vulnerabilities that would allow out-of-bounds memory writes on floppy and SCSI devices under certain conditions. The vulnerabilities may allow specially crafted attacks to crash the VMX process (i.e. crash the running VM) or theoretically execute commands on the host. The VMware Workstation 8.0.3 release notes can be found here: https://www.vmware.com/support/ws80/doc/releasenotes_workstation_803.html.
VMware’s security advisories for these vulnerabilities can be found here: http://www.vmware.com/security/advisories/VMSA-2012-0009.html.
Users of VMware Workstation should be prompted to update to the latest version when launching the application:
If you are not automatically prompted to update VMware Workstation, manually check for updates from the Help menu:
You can also download the full install package of VMware Workstation from http://www.vmware.com/products/workstation.
While not specifically mentioned in the release notes, I wonder if this update was prompted by the VMware source code leak described in the VMware Security Blog: http://blogs.vmware.com/security/2012/05/vmware-security-note.html. If so, kudos to VMware’s security and engineering teams for quickly identifying, fixing, and releasing updates to correct flaws that may be exposed through this code leak.
