vExpert 2025 2nd Half Applications are open

 

Applications for the second half of the 2025 vExpert Program are open through July 24th, with award notifications sent on or before August 15th.

What It Takes to Win the vExpert Award

The vExpert award recognizes impactful community contributions, not job roles or certifications.

A benefit to applying in the second half is that we consider contributions from both 2024 and 2025, this is the only time we include current year contributions. 

Work related activities (as part of your paid job) do not count.

You can be recognized for any of the following:

• Enterprise / Internal Influencers
• Driving VMware product adoption through internal sessions, mentoring, and evangelism within your organization.
• Bloggers
• Publishing regular technical content, scripts, deep dive product overviews, and community-focused articles.
• Code Sharing
• Contributing open-source projects, scripts, GitHub repos, automation tools, or technical blog posts.
• VMUG Leaders
• Leading VMware User Group chapters and helping foster local technical communities.
• Event Speakers
• Presenting on VMware topics at conferences, webinars, company meetings, or VMUG events.
• Podcasters
• Creating or participating in podcasts covering VMware or related technologies.
• Forum Contributors
• Actively helping others on platforms like Broadcom Communities, Reddit, or other technical discussion forums.
• Authors
• Writing or contributing to books on VMware technologies.
• VCDX Certification Holders
• Holding VMware’s highest level of certification demonstrates deep investment and expertise.

How to Apply for the vExpert Award

These are examples of how you can earn the award.

If you don’t want to create videos, start a blog, or participate in a podcast, that’s perfectly fine but choose the format that fits you best. 

By browsing the vExpert Directory, you can see what others have done to win the award and find inspiration for your own path.

Applying is straightforward, but being intentional will strengthen your chances.

Connect with a vExpert PRO

If this is your first time applying, consider working with a vExpert PRO. They’re experienced vExperts who can guide you through the process and help you highlight your contributions to ensure you are awarded with the vExpert Award.

Engage with the Community

Amplify vExpert-related posts, share VMware announcements, create blog content, share VMware related videos, or start a podcast. A great way to learn is by reviewing the vExpert Directory to see how others have contributed, each profile lists their social links and badges for the work they have completed. Browse all badges by reviewing at this profile, then clicking on one of the badges.

Tell Your Story

Write about your journey, community impact, and VMware-related projects. A personal touch makes your application stand out and reflects your commitment.

Apply Now

Submit your application at: https://vexpert.vmware.com/apply

Finally hope if you do decide to apply that you're successful in obtaining the vExpert award

 

VMware vSphere Foundation and VMware Cloud Foundation version 9, A comparision

 

VMware vSphere Foundation and VMware Cloud Foundation version 9

Today we were talking about licensing and feature differences between VMware vSphere Foundation and VMware Cloud Foundation

VMware Cloud Foundation  

A unified private cloud platform that combines the scale and agility of public cloud with security and performance of on-premises infrastructure, delivering increased productivity and lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).

·       VMware Cloud Foundation is a full-stack Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) platform that delivers software-defined compute, storage, networking, security, and management.

·       Integrated automation enables a self-service platform to rapidly deploy VMs/containers for developer agility.

·       Hardened platform offering built-in resilience, scaling, and clustering for non-stop operations.

·       Provides cloud agility to scale infrastructure without scaling staff, delivering cloud consumption on-premises.

·       Provides automation and orchestration to simplify Day 0, Day 1, and Day 2 tasks.

·       Available as a single SKU to simplify full stack deployment

VMware vSphere Foundation

An enterprise-grade workload platform for modern infrastructure delivering virtualized benefits, simplified management, cost efficiency, scalability and serves as the core foundation for VMware Cloud Foundation.

·       Unified workload platform for running VMs and containers side by side with a native Kubernetes runtime.

·       Intelligent operations management delivers enhanced visibility and infrastructure optimization. 

·       Hyperconverged infrastructure integrates compute and storage virtualization for efficient resource management.

·       Simplified deployment and scalability with a single SKU, enabling faster application delivery and future ready infrastructure

However, there is much more to these products, the one you select will be based on your needs, and thankfully VMware have produced a guide that not only talks about feature comparisons, but also talks about the available upgrade paths from previous products to VCF 9.0

To obtain this guide visit

vmware-cloud-foundation-9-0-feature-comparison-and-upgrade-paths

 

VMware Cloud Foundation 9 – What is it?

 

VMware Cloud Foundation is a unified private-cloud platform that combines the scale and agility of public cloud with security and performance of private cloud, delivering increased productivity and lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).

VMware Cloud Foundation can be used to modernize infrastructure with integrated, enterprise-class compute, networking, storage, management, and security across all endpoints.

With automated infrastructure and intelligent operations, organizations can optimize performance, lower costs and reduce operational overhead.

Accelerate innovation with a self-service IaaS platform that delivers a modern cloud interface to run VMs, containers and AI workloads.

With built-in security and resiliency, safeguard the business, ensure business continuity, and free up teams to focus on innovation instead of addressing security threats.

The core products that come with VCF 9.0 are as follows

vSphere

The two core components of VMware vSphere are VMware ESX and VMware vCenter.

·       ESX is the virtualization platform where you create and run virtual machines and virtual appliances, Kubernetes workloads, and AI/ML workloads.

·        vCenter is the service through which you manage multiple hosts connected in a network pool host resources.

vSAN

·       VMware® vSAN™ aggregates local or direct-attached capacity devices of all ESX hosts in a cluster and creates a single storage pool shared across all ESX hosts in the vSAN cluster.

·        You can use vSphere features that require shared storage, such as vSphere HA, vSphere vMotion, and vSphere DRS, without the need for external shared storage.

NSX

·        VMware NSX enables network connectivity, operations, and scale. It uses a software-defined approach to networking that spans data centers, clouds and application frameworks.

·        NSX brings networking services closer to the application, whether running on virtual machines (VMs), containers or physical servers. This allows for a cloud operating model where networks can be provisioned and managed independently of the underlying hardware.

·        NSX replicates the entire network model in software, enabling any network topology—from simple to complex multi-tier networks—to be created and provisioned in seconds. Users can create multiple virtual networks with diverse requirements, leveraging a combination of the services offered over NSX or from a broad ecosystem of third-party integrations to build inherently more agile and secure environments. These services can then be extended to various endpoints within and across clouds.

VCF Operations

·        VMware Cloud Foundation Operations (formerly VMware Aria Operations) or VCF Operations helps your organization build, manage, operate and secure your private cloud infrastructure by deploying and maintaining its fleet-level components, providing visibility and enhanced performance across the workload and infrastructure stack, and helping your organization stay compliant with regulatory standards and organizational guidelines.

VCF Automation

·        VMware Cloud Foundation Automation (formerly VMware Aria Automation) or VCF Automation enables IT teams and cloud service providers (CSPs) to deliver a self-service private cloud for AI, Kubernetes, and VM-based applications.

·        The solution simplifies the process of provisioning and scaling a multi-tenant private cloud with out-of-the-box Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) offerings, accelerating the time to market for applications while maintaining control using policy-based governance.

VCF 5.x Components and Their New Names in VCF9.0

 

I’ve been talking about VCF 5.2 this week, but questions have arisen with VCF 9.0.

Not a problem, VCF 5.2 has its terminology as does VCF 9.0

This quick little posts purpose is for one thing and one thing only, it’s here to talk about the name changes from VCF 5.x to VCF 9.0.

It’s helped me when taking about how we used to manage the product, to how we now manage the product.

Lots more posts to come as I continue my journey to VCF 9.0

 

VCF 5.x Component	VCF 9.0 Component
VMware Cloud Builder	VCF Installer
SDDC Manager	SDDC Manager
VMware Aria Operations	VCF Operations
VMware Aria Operations for Logs	VCF Operations for Logs
VMware Aria Operations for Networks	VCF Operations for Networks
VMware Aria Lifecycle	VCF Operations fleet management
Workspace ONE Access	-
-	VCF Identity Broker
VMware HCX	VCF Operations HCX
VMware Aria Automation	VCF Automation
VMware Aria Automation Orchestrator	VCF Operations Orchestrator
VMware Cloud Director	VCF Automation
VMware vSphere with Tanzu / VMware IaaS control plane	vSphere Supervisor

 

VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 Hands On Labs

 

VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 Hands On Labs

As you may or may not be aware, VMware have released VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0

As a VMware Certified Instructor, I’m going to have to learn this product.

The best way for me to learn, is to use it.

With that in mind, VMware have very kindly produced some Hands On Labs that we can access and get a feel for the product before we implement our home labs, or even implement our production environments.

To access these labs. Go to the VMware Hands on labs web site at:

https://labs.hol.vmware.com

Sign up for an account and you’re ready to go.

These are the hands on labs that I’ve worked through and they are a very good place to start my journey to VCF 9.0 

What’s New in VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 - Platform (HOL-2610-01-VCF-L)

What’s New in VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 - Automation (HOL-2610-02-VCF-L)

What’s New in VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 - Operations (HOL-2610-03-VCF-L)

What's New with vSphere in VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 (HOL-2630-01-VCF-L)

Happy 2024

 Hi all

It's been over 18 months since I last posted, work and life got in the way.

Happy 2024, I hope this year is a great one, my aim is to write more blogs related to the cloud and virtualisation, and as VMware has changed hands, and is now VMware by Broadcom, I hope to blog more about the new company moving forward.

All the best to you and you family over the next 366 days.

Best wishes 

Bryan

Free ebook - Cloud Operating model for Dummies

 Another free ebook from VMware

This 66 page book by Mandy Storbakken, Martijn Baecke, and Ellie Ruano covers:

"Whether you’re just starting out on your cloud journey or well on your way, there’s considerable value in ensuring you have a cloud operating model to take you forward. This book can be your guide.

It’s loaded with information that will bring you up to speed on the whats, hows, and whys of cloud operations and management.

Armed with that knowledge, you can maximize your existing and future cloud investments — whether they’re private, public, hybrid, edge, or multi-cloud."

To download visit VMware Documents