VMware Communities Roundtable

Why spend 1 day a week learning AI, because it's moving that fast, how to design your Data Center with AI capabilities, and everything else you can learn from VMUG Connect Orlando.

Bob and Matt talk about the news around vSphere Standard Article about being available again and how it effect community lab environments. Also mention of Advantage 1 year license without a a VCP certification for study purposes.

Drew NIelsen comes talks about the new VCAPs, VCP certifications and the VCDX defines that happened at Explore in Vegas. The VCDX program is back!

Bob and Eric cover all the highlights from the Explore 2026 in Vegas this year. It was crowded with 4800 attendees and things were busy. Hackathon was twice as big as before, VMware{code}labs were full with Kubernetes and the Hub was crowded and buzzing. VCF 9.1 with integrated VKS and AI was what was happening.

As we all learn about VKS on VCF, it's an adventure to explore the Platform engineering. Leif worked on a VKS blog looking at the big considerations when looking at VKS.

Piotr talks about how he managed his 9.1 upgrade and the Powershell calling REST API's to avoid a subnet trap where traffic is blocked between subnets during install.

Dale Hassigner, 2025 Hackathon winner comes on the show to discuss what's happening for 2026, for AI learning to AI building, it should be a great Hackathon this year. With over 100 people signed up, we expect a record attendance.

Pakaj takes us through where DevOps has been and where it's going and the glass ceiling that requires a new way of thinking. Bob, Tony and Eric chat with Pankaj to get inside his brain.

Eric and Matt discuss the Explore community momentum this year with a better community booth, improved screens and keyboard for the code labs and giving away sensor while learning how to deploy workload to the edge using VKS.

Bob and Eric take a look at the content Catalog as well as the People's Choice voting. Content Catalog is live for Explore Vegas 2026, go take a look, over 200 great sessions.