Virtually Speaking Podcast

In this episode of Virtually Speaking, Pete Flecha and John Nicholson are joined by VMware legend Cormac Hogan to unpack everything you need to know about Data Services Manager (DSM). They explore how DSM delivers on-premises database services for platforms like PostgreSQL and MySQL—while solving a big problem for VI admins: database sprawl.   Cormac explains how DSM gives vSphere admins control o...

In this episode of Virtually Speaking, hosts Pete Flecha and John Nicholson are joined by Harshad Colte and Feidhlim O’Leary to break down the latest vSphere enhancements in VMware Cloud Foundation 9.   They explore how vSphere is evolving to support both traditional VM workloads and modern container-based applications—all while improving operational efficiency, scalability, and security.   Highli...

In this episode, Pete Flecha and John Nicholson are joined by Pete Koehler to dive into the latest vSAN innovations in VMware Cloud Foundation 9. They explore key updates like global deduplication, improved network traffic separation, vSAN-to-vSAN replication with VMware Live Recovery, and stretch cluster enhancements.   From boosting performance and efficiency to simplifying disaster recovery and...

In this final episode of the VMware Cloud Foundation 9 series, Paul Lembo, CTO for Americas Strategic at Broadcom, discusses "The Sum is Greater than the Parts", emphasizing how VCF 9's integrated capabilities create more value than individual technological components.   Key Highlights: Holistic Cloud Strategy:   - Integrated improvements in compute, storage, and networking   - Operational agility...

Welcome to the eighth episode of the Virtually Speaking Podcast's VCF 9 series! In this installment, hosts Pete Flecha and John Nicholson explore "VMware Cloud Foundation for ALL" with James LeFort, Director of Americas Solutions Architects at Broadcom. In this episode, James dismantles the perception that VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) is only for large enterprises. He emphasizes that VCF 9 is a v...

Welcome to the seventh episode of the Virtually Speaking Podcast's VCF 9 series! In this installment, hosts Pete Flecha and John Nicholson unpack VMware Cloud Foundation 9 with William Lam, Distinguished Platform Engineer at Broadcom.   Key Highlights: Complete re-architecture of the software stack Core Platform Innovations:   - Compute: Support for VMs up to 1000 vCPUs and 16TB memory   - Memory...

Welcome to the sixth episode of the Virtually Speaking Podcast's VCF 9 series! In this installment, hosts Pete Flecha and John Nicholson explore "Momentum Shift: Private AI in the Enterprise" with Chris Wolf, Global Head of AI and Advanced Services.   Key Highlights: VMware's explosive momentum in Private AI services Key AI use cases for enterprises:   - GPU as a Service with intelligent resource...

Welcome to the fifth episode of the Virtually Speaking Podcast's VCF 9 series! In this installment, hosts Pete Flecha and John Nicholson explore "VCF Automation and Fleet Management" with Chandra Prathuri, Senior Director of Product Management.   Key Highlights: Fleet management capabilities inspired by hyperscaler operations Seamless integration with existing vSphere, vSAN, and NSX deployments Au...

Welcome to the fourth episode of the Virtually Speaking Podcast's VCF 9 series! In this installment, hosts Pete Flecha and John Nicholson explore "Building a Cyber Resilient Private Cloud" with Rakesh Radhakrishnan, Senior Director of Product Management for Cloud Storage & Data.   Key Highlights: vSAN's evolution as the #1 storage platform for VMware workloads Secondary storage strategies for...

Welcome to the third episode of the Virtually Speaking Podcast's VCF 9 series! In this installment, hosts Pete Flecha and John Nicholson dive deep into the core infrastructure innovations of VMware Cloud Foundation 9 with Core Infrastructure Product Lead Vijay Ramachandran.   Key Highlights: Advanced memory tiering technology reducing infrastructure costs by 35-40% Confidential Compute with end-to...

Welcome to the second episode of the Virtually Speaking Podcast's VMware Cloud Foundation 9 series! In this installment, hosts Pete Flecha and John Nicholson continue their deep dive into VMware Cloud Foundation 9 with Director of VCF Product Marketing Rick Walsworth.   Key Highlights: Simplified deployment as a single, unified platform Enhanced user experience for cloud infrastructure admins and...

Welcome to the first episode of the Virtually Speaking Podcast's VMware Cloud Foundation 9 series! In this inaugural installment, hosts Pete Flecha and John Nicholson sit down with Paul Turner, Broadcom’s  leader of VCF product management, to kick off an in-depth exploration of VMware Cloud Foundation 9. This series will dive deep into the platform's latest innovations, capabilities, and transform...

VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 is now Generally Available! For the next several days we will be releasing several episodes in our series titled Exploring VMware Cloud Foundation 9. This series takes you behind the scenes with the product experts, engineers, and visionaries driving the VCF 9 transformation. Whether you’re an infrastructure architect, IT leader, or just cloud-curious, these conversatio...

In this episode of Virtually Speaking, we’re gearing up for Mobile World Congress 2025 with Paul Turner, VP of Products, and Anupama, Telco Lead for Product Marketing at Broadcom. We dive into Broadcom’s bold vision for the Telco Data Center, focusing on how simplification, unification, and automation are transforming network operations. With the theme “Your Telco Data Center. Simplified. Unified....

Private clouds are often misunderstood—seen as expensive, inflexible, and unable to scale like public cloud solutions. But are these perceptions accurate? In this episode of Virtually Speaking, cloud strategist David Linthicum joins us to challenge these misconceptions and explore how private cloud infrastructure has evolved. David breaks down why businesses are taking a fresh look at private clou...

In this episode of Virtually Speaking, Pete and John are joined by Puneet Chawla and Michael McLaughlin from the VMware Cloud Foundation Division at Broadcom to explore the various workload migration paths to VMware Cloud Foundation. They dive into powerful migration tools like HCX, VMware Live Recovery, and the VCF Import Tool, breaking down their capabilities and ideal use cases. Whether you’re...

In this episode of the Virtually Speaking Podcast, we explore the fascinating origins of IT best practices with Cody Hosterman, Sr. Director of Product Management at Pure Storage. Cody shares insights on how many best practices were born out of real-world challenges—often solving for bugs and limitations that shaped today’s IT norms. We’ll also highlight how VMware Cloud Foundation exemplifies the...

In this episode of the Virtually Speaking Podcast, Pete and John sit down with Kyle Gleed and Broc Yanda from Broadcom to discuss how to prepare your network for VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF). From understanding the essential network prerequisites to best practices for leveraging vDS, LAG, and NSX, they dive into the key steps to ensure a smooth VCF deployment. Whether you’re planning your first V...

In this episode, Alex Mathews and David Cairns from Broadcom’s Value Added OEM Sales team join us to discuss the new agreements with Dell, HPE, and Lenovo under the Broadcom Advantage Program. Learn how these co-engineered partnerships are delivering VMware Cloud Foundation as the premier subscription-based private cloud solution, combining the agility of public cloud with the security and perform...

In this episode, we chat with Christian Mohn, Chief Technologist, and Stine Elise Larsen, Senior Datacenter Consultant at Proact IT Norge, about the evolving role of blogging in tech. Is blogging becoming a lost art in the age of video and social media? We explore why blogs are less common today, how new platforms have shifted content creation, and the enduring value of blogging for both readers a...

Managing storage costs can often feel like navigating in the dark. In this episode, we sit down with Tom Nagelmeyer, vSAN Product Marketing Engineer at Broadcom, to explore how VMware Cloud Foundation, VMware vSAN, and VMware vSAN Max bring transparency and control to storage expenses. Discover the latest tools and strategies to identify, measure, predict, and optimize storage costs, enabling orga...

In this episode of the Virtually Speaking Podcast, we sit down with Christian Ferber, Solution Architect for Cloud Management at Broadcom, to explore how FinOps principles can transform financial management in VMware Cloud Foundation environments. Christian shares how organizations can gain deeper visibility into their cloud spending using VMware Cloud Foundation features like cost drivers, reclai...

In this episode of the Virtually Speaking Podcast, Yoomi Hong and Belu de Arbelaiz from VMware Cloud Foundation Product Marketing at Broadcom join us to explore VMware Live Recovery and the latest announcements from VMware Explore. We delve into game-changing features like vSAN Local Recovery, which accelerates failback from VMware Cloud on AWS by up to 16x, and vSAN Remote Snapshot Replication, w...

In this episode of the Virtually Speaking Podcast, we sit down with Dave Morera, Technical Marketing Architect, and Arvind Jagannath, Product Management Lead from Broadcom, to explore how VMware by Broadcom is addressing customer challenges like rising costs, underutilized CPUs, and unbalanced memory-CPU ratios. We dive into the exciting tech preview of NVMe-based memory tiering, uncovering its po...

In this episode of the Virtually Speaking Podcast, we’re joined by Marc van de Logt, Technical Architect at PQR, to explore the latest advancements in VMware NSX Security. We dive into VMware vDefend, including its integration with NSX Firewalling, NAPP deployment using Avi Loadbalancer, and cutting-edge tools like Security Intelligence, NTA, IDS/IPS, and NDR. Marc also introduces VMware’s Project...