I went to the #NEVMUG summer slam this week. There were well over a thousand folks there. Dell was a sponsor, along with 17 or so of other companies who sell the products and services you need in your data center.

The first half of the day, VMware employees presented on all sorts of topics.  My favorite presentations were VMware fundamentals: back to the basics and vStorage: Best practices. After a great lunch of subway sandwiches, the vendors presented sessions in the afternoon.

Dell Storage’s own David Glynn (@d_glynn) presented on what’s coming up with Dell Storage and advanced SAN functionality for virtualization.  When I was in the room, Sheryl Koenigsberg (@storagediva), Will Urban (@virtwillu) and David Stevens (@psustevens) also joined in on the conversation.

I also attended a great session by F5 (Dell partner!) on VDI. Interesting to think about providing a common user experience to accessing a virtual desktop, no matter the device used to access the desktop. Good stuff.

All day, people kept explaining to me that #NEVMUG was like a preview to VMworld. If the party at Gritty’s is a foreshadowing of VMworld – I cannot wait!

The Dell Storage team has one more big event to get through before VMworld though. Tech Field Day 7 is going to be held in Austin next month, and Dell is one of the stops for the delegates! As we prepare to welcome delegates to the lone star state, we’re excited to see some familiar names like Roger Lund, Matt Vogt, and Fabio Rapposelli. I can’t wait to meet some of the other delegates – there really seems to be lots of good sysadmin-y goodness there!

Once we get past #techfieldday, we can start thinking about VMworld. All I’m certain of is there will be #vbeers and #v0dgeball involved! Are you coming to #techfieldday in Austin? Will you be at VMworld? Let me know in the comments, would love to start connecting now!