This past week I had the pleasure of being part of the second SQL Server virtualization workshop held by VMware. The first workshop, held last year, was a tremendous success and we all wanted to keep the momentum going with more SQL Server gurus. Over the last few months, I worked closely with Michael Corey, Founder of Ntirety, Don Sullivan, Product Line Marketing Manager for Business Critical Applications at VMware, and multiple engineers from Tintri to make the second workshop as great as the first one. Special thanks goes to Mike Adams, Director of Product Marketing at VMware, for continuing to support this fantastic workshop through its second iteration.

Sean McCown and Wendy Pastrick (c/o @Michael_Corey)

The goals of the workshop are simple: to educate the SQL Server professionals from around the country that contribute to the SQL Server community and/or deal with the largest and highest performing SQL Servers in the world on the topics and features of VMware’s product lineup that can complement and contribute to their success. In turn, these professionals will help educate the SQL Server community on how to successfully virtualize every SQL Server out there in the wild.

The attendees at this event are second to none:

• Allan Hirt, @sqlha
• Wendy Pastrick, @wendy_dance
• Geoff Hiten, @sqlcraftsman
• Steve Jones, @way0utwest
• Robert Davis, @sqlsoldier
• Arnie Rowland, @ArnieRowland
• Brandon Leach, @SqlServerNerd
• Melissa Connors, @MelikaNoKaOi
• Tim Ford, @sqlagentman
• Randy Knight, @randy_knight
• Chris Shaw, @SQLShaw
• Jason Strate, @StrateSQL
• Eddie Wuerch, @EddieW
• Sean McCown, @KenpoDBA
• Shawn Meyers, @1dizzygoose

Three of us are alumni:

• Michael Corey, @michael_corey
• Denny Cherry, @mrdenny
• And me

Allan Hirt In Action (c/o @Michael_Corey)

The speakers, topic lineup, and discussions were unbelievable. The best of the best were brought in to educate on the nuances of the various features of VMware vSphere. Industry greats such as Richard McDougall, Francois Tallet, Gurusimran Khalsa, and Rawlinson Rivera were all present to discuss the topics that are on the bleeding edge of virtualization technologies today. The conversations got pretty intense as the best DBAs and VMware technologists in the world sparred on the differences and complementary nature of some of the features of their respective products.

The technical labs were also incredible. I helped walk the attendees through a number of self-guided technical lab exercises where attendees got to experience the advanced tuning techniques and processes that can improve the performance and availability of their virtual environments.

Once again, VMware, you have an incredible set of technologists that put together one of the best workshops I have ever attended.  Thank you for such an amazing opportunity to help educate some of the people that I’ve been learning from for so many years.