What to expect at VMworld 2017

Make no mistake, VMworld is a party, wrapped in an expo hall, wrapped in a conference. That layered onion of experience means that every year's VMworld–whether you attend in Las Vegas or Barcelona–is guaranteed to deliver thermonuclear-grade excitement in and among a few major announcements.

While few outside VMware’s inner circle truly know what’s coming in terms of new and exciting, we can make a few educated guesses:

• Based on VMware’s release cycle and the marketing teases we’ve seen so far, cloud services and cloud-native apps are likely to see major additional press this year.
• One can guess that networking and network security topics will also get top billing.
• VMware just released vSphere v6.5 Update 1 back in late July, so it’s anyone’s guess as to whether we’ll see a vSphere v7 this year.
• Many of us still struggle with managing our virtual environments, so enhancements to the many flavors of vRealize could also be included.

Notwithstanding the product announcements, VMworld is also one of the industry’s largest expo hall opportunities.  Over 220 companies have signed up for booth space in this year’s Las Vegas expo.  There’s even a return of the legendary Expo Hall Crawl, where a few adult beverages go hand-in-hand with the networking and vendor exploration.

Join us at VMworld

Pluralsight is again making an appearance this year.  You can find us at Booth #709, where you’ll meet your favorite Pluralsight authors and grab some cool swag. Our author evangelist, Greg Shields, will also be delivering his session, “You’re a Virtualization Expert, Now What?” in the sponsor theatre on Tuesday, August 29 at 2:50 p.m. You can also sign up here to consult with Greg face-to-face on your technology strategy and next steps. Check it out and see you there!