Veeam Vanguard nominations are now open for 2018!

Just a quick blog post on the Veeam Vanguard program. The nominations for 2018 are open! That means that if you know people who would make a Veeam Vanguard you can nominate them. You can even nominate yourself, that’s perfectly fine. It’s not frowned upon, but it also doesn’t change anything in terms of evaluation for the program.

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Rick blogged on this yesterday on the Veeam blog in “Veeam Vanguard nominations are now open for 2018!” and gave some more insight of what the program is, tries to achieve and does. He also discusses the selection. The key take-away is that you cannot study for this and that it is not some kind of certification or such. Some of the current Vanguards were quoted on how they look at the program and one thing is constant in that. The fact that the people in these programs are contributors to the global tech community and it’s about sharing and helping others getting the best out of their environment and their investment in Veeam. It also helps Veeam as they get a very communicative group of people to give them feedback on their offerings, both products and services. It’s just one more tool that helps them get things right of fix thing when they got it wrong. Likewise understanding Veeam and their products better for us helps us make better decisions on design, implementation and operation of them.

You can have a look at the current lineup of Veeam Vanguards over here.

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You’ll find a short video on the program on that page as well. So go meet the Vanguards and find their blog, their communities and follow @VeeamVanguard and the hash tag #VeeamVanguard to see what’s going on.

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So, people, this is the moment if you want to nominate someone or yourself to join the Veeam Vanguards in 2018. You have time until December 29th 2017 to do so. I have always felt honored to be selected and have found memories of the events I was able to go to and I to this day I’m happy to be active in the Veeam Vanguard ecosystem. It’s a fine group of professionals in a program of a great company.

Win a fully paid trip to VeeamOn 2017!

Win a fully paid trip to VeeamOn 2017!

Are you located in the EMEA region? Do you live to protect & recover the IT systems businesses depend upon in a 24/7/365 economy? Are you convinced you should really attend VeeamON 2017 but you have not been able to secure a ticket or get the budget approved to do so?

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Convince me of your need to attend. Show me why you are the person that should really be at VeeamON 2017 but for some reason or mistake has been left behind. Why? Well, as a Veeam Vanguard who’s attending as well, I get to offer you to enter a raffle to be able to attend. The package includes a fully paid trip to VeeamOn 2017. That includes your flight, hotel and conference attendance!

Interested?

I need you to send me a short explanation via my contact page on my blog why you need to be at VeeamON 2017 in New Orleans. I will only filter for valid answers in order to sort out anyone not treating this seriously. Those valid replies will go into the Veaam Raffle where the lucky winner will be drawn. Don’t forget to include your full name so I can pass it along to Veeam with your e-mail address. The deadline is April 7th (CET). So don’t delay!

So, for those people serious about attending VeeamON 2017 but didn’t not get approval due to budget restrictions or management not will to let you go, this is your opportunity. With some effort and luck, you can step into an awesome world of techies that operate in an always on mindset. Those that live to protect IT systems so their businesses can thrive and if needed, survive when a calamity happens. You can come and learn with the best of the best.

Good luck to all!

May 2017 will be a travelling month

Introduction

In ICT, you never stop learning. Changes come and go fast. Navigating through these turbulent times of rapid change, short value cycles in order to provide continuity in both services & value without falling behind or being held back is a challenge we all face every day. If you hire or employ technologists, please take a moment to consider what they pull off for you every day. It helps to be realistic on what to expect from and to achieve with them. For that a solid understanding of the technology ecosystem and good doctrine to achieve your goals are necessary. For that to really happen and for their efforts to pay off we need to make sure politics and bureaucracy are kept under control. Let your people shine and move ahead. Long term planning does not equate a strategy and you might find yourself out paced & maneuvered by the industry and your competitors. That’s a reason why you see technologist move up the ladder and take on the leadership role inside many companies. They tend to be better placed to see the opportunities and what these require. In that respect, it pays off to walk out of your office every now and then in order to prevent tunnel vision and echo chambers. That’s one of the reasons that for me May 2017 will be a travelling month.

May 2017 will be a travelling month

Cloud & Datacenter Conference Germany

First, I’ll be in Munich, Germany, fort he Hyper-V community day and to both attend / speak at the Cloud & Datacenter Conference Germany 2017. That’s a conference for and by the community and the speakers are all highly experienced people who talk the talk and walk the walk.

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I you can grab a ticket asap. From the very 1st edition the Cloud & Datacenter Conference Germany has set the standard for what a conference should be like.  I’ll be talking about SMB Direct / RDMA on the Hyper-V community day and about Windows Server 2016 Failover Clustering & Hyper-V at the conference. Please feel free to come over an chat.

Dell EMC World 2017

After that I’m off to DELL EMC World 2017 where I’ll be diving into the offerings that exit today and in the near future. As you might have guessed I’m very interested in the DELL Storage Spaces solutions, there take on and use of ReFSv3 and Windows Server 2016. Next to that, I would not be nick named RoCE Balboa if I was not interested in networking. Hardware wise I have my eye on the S-Series S6100-ON as that is one versatile piece of equipment. Man, I imaging having a lab with a 6 of those to test and play around with. No to mention the S2D clusters & backup targets to hammer them with a nice workload. Throw in the Mellanox cards for good measure. I can dream right ? As I’m a realist I’m also very interested in their servers and still, the Compellent offerings, which as far as traditional SANs go is one easy to manage & leverage piece of gear. It goes without saying I’ll be taking a look at what the EMC addition to the portfolio can achieve for us as well as the DELL EMC 3rd party offerings

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VeeamOn 2017

After that I continue on to VeeamON 2017 which makes a great addition to the two above. The Windows Server 2016 core stack as the basis for Azure Stack, S2D running on that great DELLEMC hardware. Now have that protected and made continuous available by the Veeam Availability Suite 9.5. That’s how you get an amazing stack of technologies on which to build, support amazingly good services.

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At VeeamON 2017 I’ll be joining two big names in the industry Luca Dell’Oca and Carsten Rachfahl to talk about ReFSv3. We’ll be attending sessions and “hanging out” at the MSFT boot as well.

So, no rest for a Microsoft MVP, Microsoft Extended Experts team member, Azure Advisor, a DELL Community Rockstar and a Veeam Vanguard. We’re always reading up, learning, investigating, sharing experiences & insights with our peers and learning from them. Conferences done right are very valuable and a great networking / leaning opportunity. Make the most of them when you can.

My value is your value

These conferences together with our focus on some very innovative and promising public and hybrid cloud technologies in Azure will keep me busy contemplating designs, testing the concepts of solution I have in my mind and delivering very efficient and effective solutions both in functionality as well as in TCO and ROI. That (and caffeine) combined with working with great and smart people is what makes me run. So for that reason alone I do not mind that May 2017 will be a travelling month.

Being a Microsoft MVP and “The Big Ask”

Being a Microsoft MVP and “The Big Ask’’

I’m proud to be recognized once more as a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) in 2017 for the Cloud and Datacenter Management expertise. It’s fantastic to be part of that community and I enjoy the feedback, discussion between my fellow MVPs and Microsoft. So what’s all this about Being a Microsoft MVP and “The Big Ask’’ you might wonder?

Being a Microsoft MVP and “The Big Ask’'

Many readers have reached out for help lately.  I hope that, at least, I have guided you towards the information and knowledge to find a solution. Please understand that I cannot help out everybody out there individually. With a job to do, community efforts, a life and only 24 hours in a day, there is a limit.. So yes, it’s a big ask, but I also enjoy the learning and the interaction. So don’t get me wrong on this. I love doing it.

I hope I can keep learning, growing and sharing in this industry for many years to come. I’m looking forward to some “out of the box” solutions based on Microsoft technologies in 2017-2018. The aim is  to offer the best possible solutions fast, good & affordable. These will be shared via this blog and the community for the benefit of you all!

Thank you reading!