It is my pleasure to announce that the next SouthWest Ontario Veeam User Group (SWOVUG) will be on Tuesday, September 12, 2017. This time around we’ll be meeting at the Hilton Garden Inn Toronto (Airport West). Given that summer is a popular time for vacation, we opted to skip anything sooner. Timing wise, we’ll also be very soon after VMworld where we might be able to hear some new details on Veeam Backup & Recovery V10. ...
Over the past three months or so, I have found myself wandering into the same conversation over and over again: what makes a user group good? We all too often hear about what is wrong with a user group. It might be locations, sponsors, food, etc.. But I feel like we often overlook what is good, or great, about specific user groups. First off, we have to define what “good” is. Good for the leader can be very different than good to the attendees. Are there sponsors? If so, what does “good” look like to them? If we don’t know what “good” is, then chances are you’ll eventually end up with an empty room. ...
As many readers of my blog know, I run the SouthWest Ontario Veeam User Group (SWOVUG), so it was very welcomed when Rick Vanover reached out to me earlier this year regarding a new initiative. Although there are Veeam User Groups located all over the world, they can sometimes be hard to come by. Issues like scheduling or transportation might get in the way and stop you from attending. With that in mind, Veeam is putting together their first online Veeam User Group, and I am honoured to have a presenting spot. ...
SWOVUG Q2 2017 - Nimble Storage This past Thursday (April 20th, 2017) was the first SouthWest Ontario Veeam User Group (SWOVUG) meeting of the year. Considering the weather, attendance was pretty good and with that, we had some lively conversations and presentations, which is the whole point of a user group. There were lots of new faces, and many familiar ones, which is always a great mix. ...
Today was that magical day of the year known as the Toronto VMUG UserCon, and it t’was a good day. I was fortunate enough to make it down early for opening (which involved me leaving the house at about 05:30), which was great because I wanted to make sure to catch the keynote by Frank Denneman ( @FrankDenneman on Twitter). It was also nice to get there in time to pound back a couple of cups of coffee. ...
A New Year is upon us and it is time to get the SouthWest Ontario Veeam User Group back into action! Our last event was in November, and due to some scheduling conflicts I wasn’t able to pull something together for Q1 2017. However, I am excited to announce that our Q2 2017 meeting will be held Thursday, April 20th at: Corporate Event Center Centre for Health & Safety Innovation Conference West Room 5110 Creekbank Road Mississauga, ON ...
Just a real short (but deeply meaningful to me) post today. Yesterday I was thrilled and humbled to be invited back into the Veeam Vanguard program, for the second year in a row. I have written about the program in the past, as have many others. Thus far, I think Dmitry has one of the most comprehensive pairs of posts that I have seen on the program. This year, we are up to 62 folks. Of the new folks, a large number of them are names that I immediately recognized due to their influence in the ‘vCommunity’. Going back to one of the key values of the program (your peers), I am truly looking forward to meeting these fellow Vanguards, as well as what the 2017 program has to offer. ...
Anyone who knows me knows that I am a huge proponent of the ‘vCommunity’. Since I upped my game at VMWorld 2015, I have been addicted to not just consuming community resources, but also giving back. I decided that I wanted to get involved and help out. Towards the end of 2015, my local VMUG group was not looking for any sort of additional leadership help, so I did the next best thing - I started my own user group. ...
Me on a panel discussion at the Veeam User Group held in Las Vegas at VMWorld 2016 About a year ago, I wrote a self-reflective post about what stood out to me in 2015, and what I had hoped to accomplish in 2016. Reading through it, I have to say, that I did not accomplish two out of the three goals I had listed. With regards to the ’networking’ goal, that just didn’t happen, although it is still something that I might try and pursue in 2017. ...
VDM 30 in 30 Wow - November 30th has arrived, which marks the last day of the Virtual Design Master 30 in 30 challenge. So, how did I do? Well, I managed to get a post out each and every day. I did try to keep them mainly on topic, and I aimed to hit at least 500 words per post, but I also made sure I was not just adding words to the post in order to make the sentences, and thus the word count for the post longer (see what I did there?). ...