Today Veeam held their ‘Next Big Thing’ event, and it was chock full of information. There was a lot of background and business info to get things going (not uncommon), but the product announcements did start flowing. So, what was actually announced? Veeam Availability Platform for the Hybrid Cloud One of the big points covered was more of a road map as to where Veeam is going. Looking at the image presented, it is clear that Veeam has big plans that span across both on and off premises. The plans include both private partners, in the form of service providers, as well as public partners, such as Amazon, Microsoft, and Google. ...

After some delays on my end (primarily due to a trip to the UK … not that I am complaining), the second SouthWest Ontario Veeam Users Group is in the books. By all accounts, it was a great success. Attendance was somewhere around 50 folks, the feedback was great, and the company was fantastic. As a bit of background, we ended up having about twice as many folks as we originally anticipated from when I started planning this in June. It got to the point where we had to close registration - an interesting problem to have! Given that, the venue that we chose wasn’t quite sized as well as we would have liked. The main issue at hand was some audio problems, but we didn’t let that get in the way. ...

I recently spun up a new homelab using an Intel NUC, which I love. The foot print is small, you can jam a bunch of RAM and a decent CPU in there, and the power draw is minimal. One of the things I wanted to accomplish with my NUC is the ability to bring it places, whether it be for demos, or just for toying with while I am out of the house. ...

2015 was my first VMworld and it ended up leaving quite an impression on me. Prior to arriving, I read a lot of tips and advice for newbies such as myself. One of the big tips was a comfy pair of shoes … and I have to say that was good advice. After the week was done I looked at my Fitbit stats and found that I did something like 80KM of walking! ...

I am very excited to announce that the next Southwest Ontario Veeam User Group (SWOVUG) has been booked for August 18th, 2016. Based on the attendance at the last meeting, most of the attendees came from the Greater Toronto Area. With that as a consideration, the next meeting will be held at: Rib Eye Jack’s Ale House 6531 Mississauga Rd Mississauga ON L5N1A6 Phone: 905.820.6300 Time: 11:30 - 2:30 ...

Between work and planning my next Southwest Ontario Veeam User Group (SWOVUG) meeting, blogging has been tough lately. The good news is I have about a dozen notes of varying detail on things that I need to do / blog about. So expect a slew of content soon. In the meantime, I had a great chat yesterday about getting a sponsor lined up for my next SWOVUG meeting. Nothing is set in stone, but I am aiming for mid-August, pre-VMWorld. Once we confirm the date and location, I’ll be sure to post more details, but it is shaping to be a great event. The tricky thing about sponsorship for a user group is ensuring they (the sponsors) are relevant to the subject matter. In this case, I’ve found a Veeam Elite Alliance Partner who is excited to help out a community event. I’m looking forward to what they’ll bring to the event … more details to follow soon. ...

I definitely don’t know this. A non-technical post today. As a disclaimer, this post is not aimed at anyone I know in particular. It is based on personal observations that I have made. Over the course of my career, I have worked with many folks. These people may have been subordinates, peers, or leaders. At times, I have noticed at all levels a similar reluctance to admit that something was not known. I’ll be the first to say that I have definitely been in this boat. It is still something that I try to be conscious of. Unfortunately, I still see it quite often in others (a likely in myself after enough self-reflection). ...

As some of you may recall, there was a little bit of a hub bub recently regarding ‘Making VMUG Great Again’; the crux of the issue came down to getting users more involved, particularly on the presenting side. You can read my thoughts on it here, along with some comments that folks left. Shortly after publishing that post I was contacted by an organizer for the upcoming VMUG Virtual Event and was invited to present a short community session. Well, it was time to put my money where my mouth was, so I accepted (along with the fact that I saw I was listed on the schedule). Side Note: Feel free to join me Tuesday, May 17th at 4:00 CT for my session: Make Your Backups Work For You. ...

I recently found myself in the midst of having to setup some VLANs from scratch in an environment that was a hodgepodge of switches. The terms alone between vendors can drive you mad (e.g. access mode vs untagged, dot1q trunk vs. tagged, etc.) Long story short, we got the switches down to either Cisco Catalysts or Cisco Small Business switches. After hopping between switch models enough times, the commands would just get muddled up in my head. Finally, after the umpteenth typo, I made some cheat sheets for myself as I found I was issuing the same commands over and over, but depending on the switch product line, it was slightly different. ...

Recently there has been some talk on Twitter about ‘Making VMUG Great Again’. Along with that, there have been a couple of great blog posts by Alastair Cooke and Eric Siebert, which I recommend you read. I’ve been following the conversation, albeit usually a good 12 hours or so late. https://twitter.com/DemitasseNZ/status/719651965383213056 I wanted to add my $.02 to the topic, but I don’t think Twitter is a great medium for this (largely due to me ‘missing’ the conversations). As a recent first-time co-presenter I was excited to finally be part of a presentation. I have been attending VMUG UserCons for years, and local user group meetings when possible. I have always wanted to contribute back, but I never have until recently. So what changed? In short, I was invited by Rick Vanover to co-present his session. I eagerly accepted. ...