Unexplored Territory

I read a few articles the last couple of months on the topic of VCF Edge by Dhruv Tyagi , and with the 9.1 release there were a couple of interesting posts about Zero Touch Provisioning, so it was time to invite him to the podcast and explore what VCF Edge is all about. Of course we also touch on things like Zero Touch Provisioning and how it helps customers deploy and manage thousands of hosts ac...

With VCF 9.1 the name of VMware Live Recovery, or Site Recovery Manager, seems to have changed to VCF Protection and Recovery. In this episode Velina explains how this platform provides administrators the ability to recover workloads from different types of scenarios. Whether you deleted a VM (operational recovery), lost a whole datacenter (disaster recovery), or had a security breach and found da...

VCF Native S3 Object Storage is a major feature that was announced with VCF 9.1. Pete Koehler introduced it in episode 118 and I wanted to explore what it is all about in this episode with Rakesh. Rakesh goes over what was announced with 9.1, what the timelines look like, discusses the use cases for the platform, and reveals what you can expect in the (near) future. All the topics and links discus...

Recently I realized I hadn't had Bob Plankers on the show yet, so it was time to get him to join the show and talk all things security. Bob goes over all the various features we introduced related to security in VCF 9.1, and also gives a quick overview of what we've had available in VCF and vSphere for decades now. All the topics and links discussed can be found here: https://github.com/vmware/vcf...

Broadcom just announced VCF 9.1, so it was time to get an expert on the show to talk us through the enhancements that will be coming for vSAN specifically. As always, Pete Koehler shared all the facts and figures of the release. He discusses Global Dedupe, Native S3 Object Storage, Ransomware Protection and Recovery and much more! vSAN 9.1 announcement vSAN Compression and Global Dedupe in VCF 9.1...

Arvind is back to provide an update on all things Memory Tiering. The interest in Memory Tiering is high due to insane memory prices and supply chain issues. Arvind goes over the basics of memory tiering and provide an insight into what to expect in the upcoming release of VCF/vSphere when it comes to Memory Tiering! Some of the items discussed: Performance whitepaper here: https://www.vmware.com/...

I sometimes get confused when people talk about VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) Fleets, Instances, and Domains! So I decided to invite Gary Blake to the show to explain to us all the various constructs, how they relate to each other, and what you should take into consideration when you are designing a VCF-based infrastructure! You can find the links to some of the discussed articles and documents be...

Recently, Frank published a series of blog posts on GPU resource management. I invited Frank to the show to explain why GPU resource management is different than CPU and memory management in vSphere. Frank goes over all the intricate details, and as always, dives deep into the various constructs involved. I highly recommend reading the articles which are part of the following series, and make sure...

Recently there was a big announcement about the adoption of vSAN Storage Clusters by Audi. All the reasons for me to invite Kalyan back to the show. During this episode, Kalyan not only discusses what was announced specifically with Audi, but also goes over some of the recently introduced functionality like vSAN traffic seperation, vSphere only clusters support for stretched with vSAN Storage Clus...

I've been on the Virtually Speaking podcast several times, so it was time to invite one of the hosts to the Unexplored Territory Podcast and discuss his favorite topic, hardware configurations, and the bill of materials! John Nicholson goes over all the ins and outs of procuring new hardware and talks about ordering components for existing hardware. We discuss NICs, Switches, Ready Node configurat...

A few episodes ago we had Yves Hertoghs on the show to discuss networking, so I decided it was also time to discuss security. As Chris McCain has been at the forefront of networking and security at VMware for over a decade, it only made sense to reach out and invite him to introduce vDefend! Not only was Chris part of the Explore keynote, but he also delivered various excellent sessions on network...

In 2025 the first VMUG Connect event was held in the US, and as it was a big success VMUG decided to repeat that formula in Amsterdam, Minneapolis, Toronto, Dallas and Orlando. I invited Brad Tompkins to the show to explain what these VMUG events are all about, and also provide some insights into the world of VMUG. I have the pleasure, and honor, to host a keynote session in Amsterdam at Connect i...

After Rakesh and I shared the news at Explore, and Explore On Tour, that vSAN would potentially be able to use Fibre Channel as a transport layer, since then the phone has been ringing nonstop. So it was time for me to invite Rakesh and ask him to explain what vSAN over FC is all about. In this episode Rakesh covers the why, the what, but unfortunately the when is still a question. Nevertheless, t...

VMware Cloud Foundation 9 has brought the Virtual Private Cloud networking model front and center in the vSphere UI. Not only has it become extremely easy to provide a self-service solution for networking, it comes with a plethora of networking services and capabilities. Maybe even more importantly, it allows networking-noobs (like myself) to consume advanced functionality without having to file d...

I had some trouble scheduling guests the past weeks, and as a result, I figured I would try something new. In this episode I go over the various things I announced at Explore and Explore on Tour in London, Paris, and Frankfurt. I talk about VCF Native S3 Object Storage, the enhancements we are planning for Disaster Recovery as well as Cyber Recovery, and I also briefly touch on vSAN on FC. If you...

Recently, I read this article about why VCF is the best platform for modern workloads , so I figured I would invite the author, Jad El-Zein. Jad and I discuss all the arguments of why VCF and all components are the perfect destination for containers, or I should probably say your modern workloads.

Recently, I read a fantastic LinkedIn post by Francisco Perez van der Oord, the founder of ITQ, in which he explained why he believes in Broadcom's strategic direction and the VMware portfolio. It was an interesting read, and for me, a great reason to invite one of our most valued partners in EMEA to the show. I want to thank Francisco for taking the time to sit down, as I know he has a crazy sche...

For this episode I invited our raging reporter on scene Pete Koehler! Pete is going over all the benefits, requirements, and limitations around vSAN ESA Global Deduplication. This feature was released with 9.0.1 and is available per request as discussed in this blog post . If you want to get access make sure to sign up using the form in the blog . Just as a summary, right now vSAN ESA Global Dedup...

For episode #104 I invited Jatin Jindal to talk us through the recent Ransomware Recovery and Data Recovery announcements. Jatin discusses what the VMware Ransomware Recovery entails, what the differences are between a ransomware recovery process and a disaster recovery scenario, and he talks about various roadmap items like tag-based selection, seeding, QLC support, and vSAN Cyber ReadyNodes. Int...

The last few months, I've had many discussions about Memory Tiering. When I saw a brand new performance white paper being released, I knew it was time to invite two of the authors. Qasim Ali and Todd Muirhead go over the ins and outs of Memory Tiering, they discuss the basics, but also explain in-depth what the potential performance impact is when enabling this feature in your environment. If you'...

We just finished Explore in Las Vegas, and the various local Explore On Tour events are literally around the corner. I will most likely be in London, Frankfurt, and potentially Paris myself. It looks like Joe Baguley will also be at all of those events delivering the keynote! Why should you go? Well, listen to the episode to find out. We start out with a brief conversation with Joe, and then have...

It was time to get Frank Denneman back on the show to discuss the enhancements introduced in VCF 9 and Private AI Foundation with NVIDIA. Frank goes over all new functionality and all the enhancements like Agent Builder etc. Frank also mentioned various must-attend sessions at Explore. Register now, as these will fill up fast: Chris Wolf, keynote and breakout ! Shawn Kelly and Justin Murray: Accel...

Episode 100, YESSSS! Finally, we managed to get there. For this episode, I invited two Google Cloud VMware Engine (GCVE) product managers to explain what GCVE is all about. We had Dr. Wade Holmes on the show, 84 episodes ago, to introduce GCVE, so it was time to re-introduce GCVE and discuss the current solution, and the benefits it brings with for instance the flexibility in node types , bring yo...

VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 was recently launched, and that means vSAN 9.0 is also available. There's many new features introduced in 9.0, so a perfect time to ask Pete Koehler to join the podcast once again and go over some of these key enhancements. Below you can find the links we discussed during the episode! Blog - Network Traffic Separation Blog - vSAN ESA Dedupe Blog - Stretched Topologies i...

I recently came across an excellent blog by William Lam, which  discussed  how to set up VMware Cloud Foundation 5.x on a single box for home labs . William created a Github page that goes over the whole process, and provided all the tweaks and scripts needed to get it done. I wanted to discuss this process with William, as I believe many folks in the VMware/Broadcom community will be interested i...