Azure VMware Solution at Explore 2024
The upcoming VMware Explore event in Barcelona has a number of sessions in the content catalogue that I’m looking forward to checking out in November. This post covers my top five picks for AVS sessions.
Azure VMware Solution: Extend VMware Infrastructure To Azure The Fast Way
Session Code: VCFB1660BCN
Level: 200
I’d expect most of the customers using Azure VMware Solution will be migrating existing workloads from on-premises vSphere environments, rather than starting from scratch. This could be part of a datacentre-exit strategy, or simply to make use of the extra capacity and resources offered by a public cloud such as Azure.
This session promises to cover how to extend those existing virtualised applications into Azure by using AVS to provide a fast-path to migration. Explore is a good place to learn about what’s new, and this sessions will also include details of the latest features in AVS.
Azure VMware Solution: Harness The Power Of Data With Azure Services And AI
Session Code: VCFB1600BCNS
Level: 200
This session from Microsoft will demonstrate how to take your applications already on AVS and enable them to make use of native Azure services, including Platform-as-a-service (PaaS) and AI solutions. One of the benefits of AVS is it being hosted on bare metal servers within the Azure datacentres, making it adjacent to all the other Azure resources. The simplicity and scalability of PaaS services can be used to augment, complement, and improve those workloads on the VMware virtualised environment.
I’m hoping this session will be able to show me how to make those links between the VMware architecture in Azure and the regular Azure resources.
Implementing A Robust BCDR Plan With Azure VMware Solution
Session Code: VCFB1607BCNS
Level: 200
One of the big use cases for AVS is as a Business Continuity/ Disaster Recovery (BCDR) target for your on-premises VMware Environments. The scalability of the public cloud solution allows for a small cheap “pilot-light” VCF platform to receive your backups and then expand rapidly into a full-size datacentre when disaster befalls your own server estate, or when you want to to test that scenario.
From the session description, this Microsoft breakout will explain how to implement this using best practices for various BCDR scenarios, including recovery from within Azure itself.
Building End-To-End Networking With Azure VMware Solution
Session Code: VCFB1604BCNS
Level: 200
If you’ve built your AVS environment and also have a on-premises VMware SDDC, you probably want them to be able to communicate with each other. This session will demo that connectivity, and how to use NSX and other security capabilities to keep your hybrid workloads secure.
A secure network is vital to any organisation, and is still important when hosting services in a public cloud, such as Azure. Microsoft and VMware both provide many tools to help protect your environments, but as part of the shared responsibility model of the cloud it’s your responsibility to select and configure those tools. A hybrid arrangement where your on-premises and Azure datacentres are both wanting to communicate with each other beyond any perimeter firewalls can be particularly tricky to get right, and I’m looking forward to hearing in this session how to achieve that.
Discover The Partner Ecosystem For Azure VMware Solution
Session Code: VCFB1605BCNS
Level: 200
VMware Explore, and it’s precursor VMworld, is a great event partly because of the plethora of industry partners who sponsor, present sessions, or show off their latest developments on the floor of the solutions exchange. I’ve always enjoyed these shows because of the great ecosystem of technologies showcased which reach well beyond just VMware.
This session looks at how those partners are delivering services that can be linked in to an AVS deployment. It promises to give a look at the technical integration of the Azure VMware Solution with 3rd-party storage, DR, and more.
And there’s more…
And there’s undoubtedly more to come.
As always at this point in the year, sessions are subject to change, with content and technical levels often refined. There’s already over 10 sessions on AVS listed (mid-August 2024) but we usually see new sessions added to the catalogue in the run up to the Las Vegas event, this event, and sometimes even during the events themselves as new products and features are announced.