I’ve had the pleasure of attending a large swath of VMworld conferences over the years. It’s usually a hectic week in which I see many familiar faces within the virtualization community while also trying earnestly to meet new folks who want to chat about technology, career growth, or Game of Thrones.

One overtone to the general chaos at VMware’s flagship event is having fun with the folks at Rubrik as we attempt to balance the joys of passing out LEGO kits with sharing knowledge on various techy bits. I’ve had the extreme pleasure of discussing Rubrik’s Cloud Data Management solution while giving back to the community in various Top 10 rated sessions such as Getting Started with PowerShell and PowerCLI for Your VMware Environment. But this year is different since I have an amazingly talented team of Technical Marketing Engineers who have blown the doors off whatever I could come up with solo!

Here’s a quick rundown of where you’ll find us all during the VMworld 2017 U.S. conference. We hope to see you at our sessions, the Rubrik booth (#412), and our super slick VIP VMworld Party! Make sure to say hello, as we’ll be handing out some sticker swag and other goodies, too. 🙂

How Failing Made Me Better [Opening Acts 2017 Panel]
Sunday, Aug 27, 2:00 pm, panel includes Rebecca Fitzhugh

With a nod to the old saw of “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,” we present a group of panelists who have risen to personal and career success, not through a string of only positive achievements, but through reasoned risk-taking, occasional bad luck…and failures.

Intro to Rubrik and RESTful APIs
Monday, Aug 28, 1:30 pm, presented by Filip Verloy

See how Rubrik’s modern, policy-based approach to data management is a perfect fit for VMware’s SDDC vision. We’ll demonstrate how Rubrik can cater to both more traditional IT enterprises and highly automated environments, with your choice of world-class UI, or RESTful API, which also enables deeper integration with external solutions like VMware’s vRealize Automation.

Architecting Data Protection with Rubrik [MGT3342BUS]
Monday, Aug 28, 2:30 pm, presented by Rebecca Fitzhugh and Andrew Miller

If a tree falls in a forest and nobody is there, does it make a noise? If a DR plan isn’t validated, does it truly exist in the space time continuum? From IT executives to backup admins, a true disaster is not just the loss of power or infrastructure, but the realization of “I can’t my recover data and services.” Is your infrastructure truly protected from a hurricane? Fire? Ransomware? Regardless of your position, protecting against failure and disaster is part of your job. In addition to hearing real life stories and experiences from the presenters, you’ll hear about methodology when designing for disaster. Oh, and how Rubrik can fit into those designs.

Ransomware Jail – How to Make Bail? (Asking for a friend) [VMTN6707U]
Tuesday, Aug 29, 11:45 am, presented by Andrew Miller

Who hasn’t heard of ransomware? More media buzz, or a real threat? 40x growth year over year can’t be real, right? And what’s with people paying ransoms when everyone has backups? We’ll talk about what’s driving the explosive growth in the ransomware space (staying away from FUD, but life is sometimes scary), why people pay ransoms (HINT: multiple issues but a leaky last line of defense is a big part), and what you can do about it (we’ll keep it “evaluation criteria” oriented but illustrated with Rubrik). NOTE: Community TechTalk taking place in VMvillage.

Upgrading to vSphere 6.5 the VCDX Way [SER2318BU]
Tuesday, Aug 29, 1:00 pm, presented by Rebecca Fitzhugh and Melissa Palmer

Upgrades can be scary! In this session, two VMware Certified Design Experts will walk you through the steps necessary to upgrade a VMware vSphere environment. You will learn how to perform a current-state analysis and create a future-state design, both of which are crucial to the upgrade process. See examples of upgrade plans from vSphere 5.5 to 6.5 and from 6.0 to 6.5. Learn how to design for and plan an upgrade (with notes and comments) to ensure the availability and smooth operation of your vSphere environment before, during, and after the upgrade process.

Availability and Recoverability — Cloud Design Principles [VMTN6708U]
Tuesday, Aug 29, 3:00 pm, presented by Rebecca Fitzhugh, Chris Williams, and Mike Burkhart

How does moving to the cloud change the way an architect designs for availability and recoverability? Join us to learn about which architectural principles are applied across on-premises and cloud infrastructures and which differ for cloud. We heard that 2017 was the year of “cloud,” so listen to how you should design for availability and recoverability with public clouds!

Using Automation to Validate Applications and Services in Rubrik Backups [MGT3343BUS] 
Wednesday, Aug 30, 3:30 pm, presented by Chris Wahl and Filip Verloy

Performing backups of applications, services, servers, and data is important for protecting your business against harm. For many organizations, unless a user requests data from a backup, the very act of taking a backup is where the data protection workflow ends. We can all agree that it would be wonderful to test every backup to make sure it can be restored, that services can be brought back online, and that complex applications can be put back together. The reality is that this would be a monumental and often unrealistic undertaking…until now.

We look forward to seeing you at VMworld 2017! Learn more about our VMworld agenda here.