VMworld 2012 is right around the corner and yesterday VMware launched the much-awaited Schedule Builder.  It appears they will stick with the approach they have most years – one must register for a session in order to be admitted.  So… after receiving the email that Schedule Builder was live (and then after happily spending the day with my family who just arrived home from being out of town!), I was online crafting my schedule.

Focus this year is on a few areas:

1.  Desktop/App Virtualization.  Isn’t this on everyone’s list?  And hasn’t it been for the last few years?  How many years has it been “The Year of VDI”?  So, my organization has been kicking around the idea for a couple years as well, but this year the drive has significantly increased for two primary reasons:  manageability and security.  With that, I made space for some cool sessions:

EUC2411 – Quantifying The Business Value of VMware View Hosted Virtual Desktop Solution – Diana Tsao and Ridwan Huq

EUC2671 – VMware ThinApp Technology Review and Evolution – Aaron Black and Peter Bjork

EUC1207 – ThinApp Implementation and Design Best Practices – Raymond Dusseault

EUC1351 – Directions in End-user Computing:  The Post-PC Era – Scott Davis

2.  Cloud Architecture.  The cloud is all the rage these days.  Come on, if you’re in IT you hear about it everyday.  And if you’re a consumer, you use it everyday.  We’ve had virtualized systems for the last 5 years, but never really looked at our environment as a true private cloud.  It’s about time to change that perception and treat our environment as such to increase efficiency and quality of IT services.  Here are the current sessions to better help us down this road:

INF-VSP1168 – Architecting a Cloud Infrastructure – David Hill, Aidan Dalgleish and Chris Colotti

SPO3340 – Enabling a Private Cloud on NetApp and VMware – Chris Knowles and Nick Howell

ITT3241 – Operating a More Reliable Cloud Through Proactive Incident and Problem Management – Rich Pleasants

OPS-CSM2248 – A Class on Deploying a Production Cloud Architecture – Chris Knowles

3.  vSphere Best Practices.  Even though we’ve been virtualized for almost five years, we are always looking for ways to improve performance.  Design considerations should always be reviewed to continue to optimize the environment and provide the best value to the customer.  The following sessions are my picks to cover the various aspects of vSphere design:

INF-STO2980 – vSphere 5 Storage Best Practices – Chad Sakac and Vaughn Stewart.  Any session with these two guys is a must see in my book.  It’s always great to see the camraderie between these two “frienemies”.  Here they put aside vendor differences to give a balanced view on best storage practices.

INF-VSP1683 – vSphere Cluster Resource Pools Best Practices – Rawlinson Rivera and Frank Denneman

INF-VSP1622 – What’s New:  Performance Features and Best Practices for vSphere – Krisha Raj Raja, Sreekanth Setty and Joseph Dieckhans

INF-VSP1475 – vSphere 5 Design Discussions – Scott Lowe and Forbes Guthrie.  These guys wrote the book, literally.

OPS-CIM1926 – 5 Must Know Design Considerations for Planning Capacity When You are 50% or More Virtualized – Samuel McBride and Monica Sharma

INF-VSP1504 – Ask the Expert vBloggers – Scott Lowe, Frank Denneman, Chad Sakac, Duncan Epping and Rick Scherer.  With that much brain power in the room, how can I miss out on this?!

4.  Virtual Infrastructure Management.  Just like with design, we’re always looking for ways to improve the way we manage our virtual environment.  Included are sessions on automation which apparently is a key ingredient.

INF-VSP1856 – Become a Rock Star with PowerCLI and vCenter Orchestrator – Josh Atwell

INF-VSP1252 – What’s New:  vSphere Automation – William Lam and Alan Renouf

OPS-CIM1564 – Troubleshooting Using vCenter Operations Manager – Kit Colbert and Praveen Kannan

5.  Critical Applications.  This really falls under both design and management, but with specific areas of implementation.  Here are a couple sessions picked for relevant applications:

SPO3339 – Optimized and Virtualized Business Critical Applications – Vaughn Stewart

APP-BCA1530 – Virtualizing Highly Available SQL Servers – Wanda He and Barnaby James

<whew> OK, that’s a lot.  How will I find time for all those sessions and still play with the Hands-on Labs, meet up with folks, meet new folks, check out vendors, and enjoy all the after-hours events… and sleep?  Not possible.  That was my first pass and I’ll probably whittle things down as I get closer.  I’ve discovered a more focused approach is ideal so I’ll have to figure out a way to narrow my focus.  After all, the sessions will be online after the show, but the networking and HoL won’t be the same.  Maybe I’ll jettison most of my sessions for these other options.  Either way, it’ll be great show.  Can’t wait!