Virtual Stack

On the 24th episode of the show, I'm joined by Rohan Naggi Sr. Technical Product Manager at VMware, and we discuss about VMware SD-WAN by VeloCloud.

SD-WAN is a booming market and it's promising to solve many challenges of traditional WAN solutions. There are tens of vendors in this market and VeloCloud has been one of the noteworthy ones since the beginning. VeloCloud has been acquired by VMware in 2017, and it's currently part of the Network and Security Business Unit.

We discuss many topics with Rohan, including the need for SD-WAN and why VeloCloud, then we look under the hood and discuss the architectural components of the solution. If you're looking for a primer on this topic, the level on this episode will be great for you.

You can reach out to Rohan via Twitter (@lifeboy) and LinkedIn. Virtual Stack is available on all major apps: Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcast, Stitcher and more. Hope you enjoy the show. As usual, feel free to share your feedback via Twitter (@emregirici), LinkedIn or virtualstack.tech. Links:

• The book Rohan has co-authored: SD-WAN The Networking Blueprint for Modern Businesses
• Rohan's podcast: SD-WAN 360
• Required SD-WAN characteristics by Gartner

Show Notes

• 01:00 - Intro
• 06:45 - What is the problem statement with the traditional networks. What was the need for SD-WAN.
• 14:15 - What are the key capabilities of any SD-WAN solution
• 24:30 - Why VMware SD-WAN
• 34:15 - Now that we know of why VMware SD-WAN, lets go one more level deep and understand the VMware SD-WAN components and Architecture.
• 42:00 - Closing notes

Virtual Stack Podcast is 1 year old! Thanks for your interest and support so far. Here's to many many years and episodes! On the 23rd episode of the show, I'm joined by Matt Wallace, CTO of Faction. Faction is a multi-cloud platform as a service provider and one of the first partners of VMware around the VMware Cloud on AWS solution. You should see their 2019 VMware Cloud on AWS Market Survey, which will shed some light on hybrid cloud adoption and challenges in the market. With Matt, we discuss many topics, such as Faction's hybrid and multi-cloud solutions, benefits for the customers, some customer references and trends in the market towards cloud technology and customer adoption. You can reach out to Matt via Twitter (@mattwallace) and LinkedIn. You can also follow Faction via Twitter (@factioninc) and their website. They announce free webinars on their website, which I can recommend you to follow. Virtual Stack is available on all major apps: Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcast, Stitcher and more. Hope you enjoy the show. As usual, feel free to share your feedback via Twitter (@emregirici), LinkedIn or virtualstack.tech.

I'm back with the 22nd episode of Virtual Stack after a long break. This will be a solo flight without any guests and I'll be talking about the news and announcements from the VMworld US 2019 that took place this week.

Virtual Stack is available on all major apps: Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcast, Stitcher and more.

Hope you enjoy the show. Feel free to share your feedback via Twitter (@emregirici), LinkedIn or virtualstack.tech.

Links:

What's New at VMworld 2019

General Sessions at VMworld 2019

VMware Tanzu Completes the Modern Applications Picture

Project Pacific: Kubernetes to the Core

Introducing Project Pacific

VMware Unveils Innovations Across Its Industry-Leading Workspace ONE Platform to Help Organizations Grow, Expand and Transform Their Business

Announcing VMware vRealize Automation 8.0

Announcing VMware vRealize Operations 8.0

vRealize Network Insight 5.0: Expanding Network Visibility to the Branch

VMware Cloud on AWS has proven that IT infrastructure with VMware SDDC stack atop can be ordered as a cloud service; in a scalable, smooth and agile manner. But what about the scenarios where you need to have that compute power on-premises? Enter VMware Cloud on Dell EMC!

On the 21st episode of Virtual Stack Podcast, Adam Bohle (Lead Cloud Specialist Systems Engineer at VMware) and I discuss about VMware Cloud on Dell EMC, which has just been announced at Dell Technologies World in March. This is an Edge-as-a-Service solution, which will bring VMware SDDC stack on top of Dell EMC's VxRail hyper-converged infrastructure as a cloud service.

You can reach out to Adam via Twitter and LinkedIn.

Virtual Stack is available on all major apps: Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcast, Stitcher and more.

Hope you enjoy the show. Feel free to share your feedback via Twitter (@emregirici), LinkedIn or virtualstack.tech.

Show Notes:

• 02:00 - Intro
• 04:30 - What is VMC on Dell EMC and what has been announced at DT World in March?
• 07:30 - What are the main use cases and which industries does this solution fit better?
• 14:00 - Main differentiators of VMware Cloud on Dell EMC in this competitive market.
• 16:45 - Edge Computing, Device Edge and Cloud Edge.
• 20:30 - Software, hardware and service components of the solution
• 24:00 - Security and data privacy aspects of this solution.
• 26:00 - Participating in Beta, delivery timelines of the solution
• 30:00 - Are there any plans to create a platform to manage Edge, Cloud and Private Cloud workloads from the same interface?
• 33:10 - What's VMC on AWS Outposts? How's it related to the VMC on DellEMC?
• 36:15 - Closing notes, contact information

Links:

• Announcing VMware Cloud on Dell EMC (VMware Blogs)
• VMware Cloud Portal
• Product Page and Beta registration form

On the 20th episode of Virtual Stack Podcast, I'm joined by Martijn Smit and we geek out on the recently announced vRealize Network Insight (vRNI) 4.1. This release brings lots of new features, such as, Container Visibility and Security, Application Discovery and Visibility and many more!

You can reach out to Martijn via Twitter (@smitmartijn). You can also follow his work on his blog (lostdomain.org) and VMware Blogs.

Hope you enjoy the show. Feel free to share your feedback via Twitter (@emregirici), LinkedIn or virtualstack.tech.

Show Notes:

• 01:30 - Intros
• 05:30 - Quick highlights of vRNI 4.1
• 09:30 - Application discovery and visibility feature
• 19:00 - Container security and visibility feature
• 31:45 - F5 Load Balancer support
• 33:45 - NSX-T 2.4 and Policy Manager support
• 36:30 - How can we can our hands on vRNI?
• 38:00 - What are the license tiers? Any difference between the on-premise and SaaS versions?
• 42:30 - Closing notes

Links:

• vRNI 4.1 Release notes
• Martijn's post on VMware Blog
• Try Network Insight 4.1
• CNCF Survey on Containers

AI (Artificial Intelligence), ML (Machine Learning) and DL (Deep Learning) are some of the hottest IT buzzwords of our time. If you're working in tech industry, chances are that you hear or read something about them almost every day. It looks like they are the answer to every question, and the solution to every problem, including wars and global hunger.

AI/ML is used in self-driving cars, but what about self-driving, self-optimising data centers? On the 19th episode of Virtual Stack Podcast, I'm joined by Greg Burk, Senior Staff Architect at VMware, and we discuss about AI, ML, and their use cases in today's Enterprise IT, especially Self-Driving and Self-Optimizing Data Centers.

Hope you enjoy the show. Feel free to share your feedback via Twitter (@emregirici), LinkedIn or virtualstack.tech.

Show Notes:

• 02:00 - Intro
• 05:10 - What's AI (Artificial Intelligence), ML (Machine Learning) and DL (Deep Learning)?
• 12:00 - AI/ML is not a new technology, what caused the big increase in popularity in the last 3-4 years?
• 18:00 - Where (use case, vertical, industry) do you expect AI to drive the biggest transformation?
• 26:30 - How do you expect AI/ML primarily serve in the Data Center? For driving the DC autonomously, or only for log crunching and creating insights for the people that are running the DC?
• 35:00 - Is it possible to achieve self-drive and self-optimisation in a HW defined DC, or is SDDC a must?
• 40:00 - What's VMware's approach on Self-Driving/Optimizing Data Centers? (a.k.a. Project Magna)
• 52:30 - Closing notes

Links and books:

• AI and the Birth of the Next Generation Data Center
• AI and Deep Learning at VMworld 2018
• Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future

Do you ever get stressed about giving speech, even though you know the subject by heart? Or have hard time expressing your knowledge and delivering your message effectively on a blog post? The answer is yes for many people, including me. Good news; all of these are skills that you can develop with some practice and attention.

Amy Lewis, Director of Influence Marketing at VMware, joins me on the 18th episode of the Virtual Stack Podcast, and shares her knowledge and tips for improving communication skills for engineers.

You can reach Amy on Twitter (@commsninja), and also don't forget to check her podcasts: Tech Confessions and The Geek Whisperers.

Hope you enjoy the show. Feel free to share your feedback via Twitter (@emregirici), LinkedIn or virtualstack.tech.

Show Notes:

• 01:00 Intro
• 08:00 Working as an Influence Marketing Director
• 24:00 Some advice on giving speech in front of audience, either 10 people or 1000 people
• 37:30 What tricks can improve technical blogging skills
• 42:00 How to find mentors and advisors on this subject
• 49:30 Contact info, recommended books and closing

Links and books:

• TechConfessions the Show, S2 | E1: Pat Gelsinger
• Malcolm Gladwell - Outliers
• Creativity Inc.
• Phoenix Project

On the 17th episode of Virtual Stack Podcast, I'm joined by Dumlu Timuralp (NSX Sr. Systems Engineer at VMware) and we take on the challenge of squeezing all the new features of NSX-T 2.4 into a 45-minute podcast!

NSX is VMware's flagship software-defined data center networking and security solution. I was already surprised by the amount of new features and enhancements introduced in the last 1-1.5 years, but NSX-T 2.4 has totally exceeded every release that came before. On this episode, we try to summarise the new features and focus on the key areas; intelligent operations, security, networking and more.

Great to have Dumlu on the show for the 2nd time. You can reach out to him via LinkedIn and Twitter, and expect to listen to him on his next appearance soon.

Hope you enjoy the show. Feel free to share your feedback via Twitter (@emregirici), LinkedIn or virtualstack.tech.

Show Notes:

02:00 - Intro

05:45 - Intelligent Operations: Management cluster, Installation & upgrade enhancements, N-VDS visualisation, Port-mirroring filters.

11:50 - Security: Layer 7 FW, Identity Based FW, FQDN/URL whitelisting, IPv6 in DFW and Edge FW, Extended RBAC options, Guest and Network Introspection.

24:15 - Networking: Simplified UI, Naming changes, iBGP, Scalability and performance enhancements, IPv6

33:00 - Additional new features: Declarative policy management, New Ansible module and Terraform provider, Load Balancer and VPN enhancements, Certification and compliance updates.

41:45 - Closing notes

Links:

Introducing NSX-T 2.4 – A Landmark Release in the History of NSX - VMware Blogs - https://blogs.vmware.com/networkvirtualization/2019/02/introducing-nsx-t-2-4-a-landmark-release-in-the-history-of-nsx.html/

VMware NSX-T Data Center 2.4 Release Notes - https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-NSX-T-Data-Center/2.4.0/rn/VMware-NSX-T-Data-Center-240-Release-Notes.html

VMware Presents at Networking Field Day 20 - https://techfieldday.com/appearance/vmware-presents-at-networking-field-day-20/

VMware Configuration Maximums - https://configmax.vmware.com/home

On the 16th episode of the Virtual Stack podcast, I'm joined by Karl Childs, Sr. Manager in the VMware Certification Development team. We start our conversation talking about the latest VMware announcement on re-certification, then we talk about the present and future of VMware certifications. You can reach out to Karl via Twitter (@karlchilds). Hope you enjoy the show. Feel free to share your feedback via Twitter (@emregirici), LinkedIn or virtualstack.tech Show Notes: 00:10 - Intro 10:00 - What important announcement has been recently made by VMware, what was the reason behind it. 17:30 - How's VMware Certification program staying up to date with new technologies and product releases? 23:30 - Are there any new VMware certification tracks we can expect? 29:30 - What do you think about the changes in the certification education landscape? 37:10 - Do you see any changes to the certification experience in the future? If yes, what will change? 40:15 - Closing notes Links:

• VMware announcement of re-certification: https://blogs.vmware.com/education/2019/02/04/vmware-certification-recertification-is-changing-and-what-it-means-to-you/.
• VMware Certifications: https://www.vmware.com/education-services/certification.html

With the rise of cloud-native architectures built on containers distributed microservices, developers are encountering challenges with visibility, management, and control of these new applications. The Service Mesh concept was created to address and overcome these challenges. On the 15th episode of the Virtual Stack Podcast, I'm joined by Mark Schweighardt, Director of Product Marketing in the Network & Security Business Unit (NSBU) of VMware. Together with Mike, we discuss about the Service Mesh concept, cloud-native applications, Istio/Envoy, and VMware's upcoming Service Mesh solution, VMware NSX Service Mesh. You can reach out to Mark via LinkedIn. Hope you enjoy the show. Feel free to share your feedback via Twitter (@egirici), LinkedIn or virtualstack.tech. Show notes

• 00:45 - Intro
• 02:30 - Where are we in the journey from monolithic to cloud native apps
• 06:00 - Why are the customers migrating to cloud native approach
• 11:00 - What's Service Mesh? What challenge does it solve?
• 15:30 - What are the main use cases for Service Mesh?
• 20:00 - Which industries will be adopting Service Mesh the fastest?
• 22:00 - Who are the stakeholders in a Service Mesh deployment, how will it change the life of an infrastructure engineer?
• 31:15 - What are Istio and Envoy, and what's the architecture like?
• 37:00 - What's VMware NSX Service Mesh, what added capabilities will it have on top of Istio?
• 42:00 - VMware NSX Service Mesh release timelines
• 44:30 - Useful resources, contact details and closing notes

Links

• Istio Project: https://istio.io/
• VMware NSX Service Mesh: https://pages.cloud.vmware.com/vmware-nsx-service-mesh
• VMware Blog on the VMware NSX Service Mesh announcement: https://blogs.vmware.com/networkvirtualization/2018/12/nsx-service-mesh.html/