Tag: Explore

🚀 Registration Is Now Open: Explore 2025 in Las Vegas

I’ve always attended VMware Explore in Barcelona—an event that’s consistently been a highlight of my year. But 2025 might be my first time experiencing VMware Explore in Las Vegas, and I couldn’t be more excited!

🌍 Why I Love VMware Explore

Explore is more than just a tech conference—it’s about the VMware community. This vibrant network of professionals, enthusiasts, and leaders is the heartbeat of the event.

At Explore in Barcelona, I had the honor of meeting Hock Tan, CEO of Broadcom, and connecting with incredible leaders like Corey Romero (#vExpert lead) and Josef Zach, our Czech #VMUG leader.

One of the best parts? Meeting the people you usually only see in online training sessions. It was amazing to talk in person with Tim Burkard and witness his brilliant session on Demystifying Distributed Security in VMware Cloud Foundation—a real magician at work!

🔍 What To Expect at Explore 2025

I’m looking forward to updates around VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9, especially sessions with experts like:

  • Duncan Epping on vSAN innovations
  • Frank Denneman covering the latest on AI and Private AI Foundation

The technical depth at Explore is always unmatched, and this year’s focus on Private AI and enhanced cloud solutions will be one to watch.

🎓 Learning, Certifications, and Hands-on Labs

Explore is your playground for practical learning. You’ll have the opportunity to dive deep into Hands-on Labs and even get certified. From personal experience, I highly recommend aiming for the:

  • VCP-VCF Administrator certification
  • VCP-VCF Architect certification

As Socrates said: “I know that I know nothing.” There’s always something new to learn—and VMware Explore is the perfect place to do it.

🎉 Don’t Miss the Explore Party!

No Explore experience is complete without the legendary Explore Party! Which band will play this year? That’s still under wraps, but it’s always unforgettable.

💰 Pricing Overview

Take advantage of early-bird pricing until June 16:

  • Full Event Pass – $1,795 (save $200 early)
  • Essentials Pass – $1,195
  • Meetings+ Pass – $695

➡️ Register here: VMware Explore Las Vegas Event Page

🌎 Can’t Make It to Vegas? Join VMware Explore On Tour

If you can’t attend in person, VMware Explore On Tour is coming to cities worldwide! These 1–1.5 day events feature top sessions, Hands-on Labs, and networking opportunities.

Explore On Tour 2025 Stops:

  • Mumbai – September 16–17
  • London – September 17–18
  • Paris – October 15–16
  • Sydney – October 22
  • Tokyo – October 29
  • Frankfurt – November 12–13

More info: VMware Explore Blog
Watch past sessions: Explore Video Library
Check the FAQ: Explore Las Vegas FAQs

💬 Will I see you in Vegas this year?
Let’s connect, learn, and celebrate everything that makes the VMware community so powerful.

👉 Register now for VMware Explore 2025 in Las Vegas

If you need help getting approval to attend, try using the convince your manager letter.

🎉 Your 2025 Experience Starts Here—Registration…

Registration is now OPEN for #VMwareExplore 2025 🟢

Be part of the community driving innovation across AI, cloud, and modern apps. From on-stage insights to Hands-on Labs, this is where ideas turn into impact.

🎟️ Reserve your spot today →

🎉 Your 2025 Experience Starts Here—Registration…

Registration for VMware Explore 2025 is now open—make the most of your experience in Las Vegas this August.

Broadcom Social Media Advocacy

Highlights from VMware Explore 2024 Barcelona

General Session Insights:

  • Private Cloud as the Future of Innovation: Broadcom’s President and CEO, Hock Tan, emphasized that private cloud has become the foundation for enterprise innovation.
  • Balancing AI with Compliance: Chris Wolf highlighted the importance of aligning AI advancements with organizational privacy and compliance needs.
  • Community Acknowledgments: Joe Baguley celebrated the vibrant VMware community, from 1,600+ vExperts to 150,000 VMUG members, for their global contributions.
  • Agile IT for Business Success: Paul Turner emphasized the need for IT agility to rapidly deliver applications and services, crucial for achieving business goals.
  • VeloRAIN Architecture: Sanjay Uppal introduced the VeloRAIN (Robust AI Networking) architecture, leveraging AI/ML to enhance distributed AI workloads’ performance and security.

For more details, check the general session recap.

Notable Sessions and Presentations:

  • Distributed Security Simplified: Dive into the intricacies of distributed security in VMware Cloud Foundation. Read more.
  • VMware vSAN ESA: Explore how VMware vSAN ESA serves as a robust storage platform for VMware Cloud Foundation. Details here.
  • Demystifying DPUs and GPUs: Understand the role of DPUs and GPUs in VMware Cloud Foundation for advancing AI and data workloads. Learn more.
  • AI Without GPUs: Discover innovative ways to harness CPU power for AI workloads in GPU-limited environments. Read more.
  • Data Unlocking with VMware and NVIDIA: Broadcom and NVIDIA offer deep insights into unlocking data potential through AI-powered solutions. Deep dive.
  • VMware Fusion and Workstation: Exciting news—VMware Fusion and Workstation are now available for free. Get the details.

For a complete list of VMware Explore 2024 Barcelona presentations, visit this link.

An inspiring evening of networking and meaningful conversations at the Community Leadership Reception at Explore in Barcelona.
The VMware Community truly is the heart of Explore.
It was an honor to meet Hock Tan CEO,

and engage with incredible leaders like Corey Romero hashtag#vExpert leader and Josef Zach, our hashtag#VMUG Czech leader.

VMware Explore Barcelona 2024 presentations now…

VMware Explore Barcelona 2024 presentations now available

VMware Explore Barcelona 2024 presentations now…

I came to learn during the week of VMware Explore Barcelona 2024, that the breakout sessions were not going to be recorded, but the presentations would be available only shortly after the conference. I was just reminded by a colleague who asked if I could update my VMware Explore 2024 Session URL Github repo, so […]

Broadcom Social Media Advocacy

VMware Fusion and Workstation are Now Free for…

VMware Fusion and Workstation are Now Free for…

We’re thrilled to announce a significant change that reflects our commitment to making VMware Fusion and VMware Workstation more accessible than ever. Starting November 11, 2024, these powerful desktop hypervisor products will be available for free to everyone—commercial, educational, and […]

Broadcom Social Media Advocacy

AI Without GPUs – Harnessing CPU Power for AI Workloads

At VMware Explore EU 2024, the session “AI Without GPUs: Using Your Existing CPU Resources to Run AI Workloads” showcased innovative approaches to AI and machine learning using CPUs. Presented by Earl Ruby from Broadcom and Keith Bradley from Nature Fresh Farms, this session emphasized the potential of leveraging Intel Xeon CPUs with Advanced Matrix Extensions (AMX) to run AI workloads efficiently without the need for GPUs.

Key Highlights:

  1. Introduction to AMX:
    • AMX (Advanced Matrix Extensions), available in Intel’s Sapphire Rapids processors, enables high-performance matrix computations directly on CPUs, making them more capable of handling AI/ML tasks traditionally reserved for GPUs.
  2. Why Use CPUs for AI?:
    • Cost Efficiency: Lower operating costs compared to GPUs.
    • Energy Efficiency: Ideal for environments where power consumption is a concern.
    • Sufficient Performance for Specific Use Cases: CPUs can efficiently handle tasks like inferencing and batch-processing ML workloads with models under 15-20 billion parameters.
  3. Software Stack:
    • OpenVINO Toolkit: Optimizes AI/ML workloads on CPUs by compressing neural networks, improving inference performance with minimal accuracy loss.
    • Intel oneAPI: Provides a unified software environment for both CPU and GPU workloads.
  4. Real-World Application:
    • Nature Fresh Farms: Demonstrated how AI-driven automation using CPUs effectively manages complex agricultural processes, including plant lifecycle control in greenhouses.

When to Choose CPUs Over GPUs:

  • Inferencing and Batch Processing: When real-time responses are not critical.
  • Sustainability Goals: Lower power consumption makes CPUs a viable option.
  • Cost-Conscious Environments: For scenarios where reducing operational costs is a priority.

Unlocking Your Data with VMware by Broadcom and NVIDIA — RAG Deep Dive

At VMware Explore EU 2024, the session “Unlocking Your Data with VMware by Broadcom and NVIDIA — RAG Deep Dive” delivered fascinating insights into the power of Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG). Led by Frank Denneman and Shawn Kelly, this session explored how combining large language models (LLMs) with proprietary organizational data can revolutionize data utilization in enterprises.

What is RAG?

RAG combines the strengths of LLMs with a Vector Database to enhance AI applications by integrating them with an organization’s proprietary data. This synergy allows for more precise and context-aware responses, crucial for business-critical operations.

Why RAG Matters:

  • Enhanced Accuracy: Unlike traditional LLMs prone to “hallucinations” or inaccuracies, RAG provides validated, up-to-date answers by sourcing information directly from relevant databases.
  • Contextual Relevance: It seamlessly blends general knowledge from LLMs with specific proprietary data, delivering highly relevant insights.
  • Traceability and Transparency: RAG solutions can cite the documents used to generate responses, addressing one of the significant limitations of traditional LLMs.

How RAG Works:

  1. Data Indexing: Proprietary data is pre-processed and stored in a vector database.
  2. Question Processing: When a query is made, it is semantically embedded and matched against the vector database.
  3. Answer Generation: The most relevant data is retrieved and used to generate a precise answer.

Integration with NVIDIA:

NVIDIA’s Inference Microservice (NIM) accelerates this process by optimizing LLMs for rapid inference, leveraging GPU-accelerated infrastructure to enhance throughput and reduce latency.