SQL Server Database Virtualization Workshop
Serious workshop for a serious topic
During week of September 8th,?VMware and Pure Storage?are hosting a 3-day, intensive SQL Server database virtualization workshop at their corporate headquarters in Pal Alto, CA. ?There are a number of reasons why this workshop is so unique:
- 15 Experts, many of whom are Microsoft SQL Server MVP’s (Most Valuable Professionals).
- Being held at VMware Pal Alto headquarters enables VMware to bring in key engineers to collaborate with the SQL Server experts.
- Open dialogue on where VMware vSphere technology is today and where it will be in the future.
- Hands on Labs enabling these SQL Server experts to get their hands dirty with the technology.
It is not very often that you see a technology vendor so confident about the ability of their technology that they are willing to bring in industry experts of this caliber and let them get their hands dirty with it, especially knowing that they will share their experiences good and bad. I commend both Pure Storage and VMware for making this SQL Server Database virtualization workshop possible.
Why this SQL Server virtualization workshop is happening Now!
With the recent release of vSphere 5.x you now have a hypervisor able to scale up to 64 vCPUs and 1TB of RAM. The most demanding database workloads can now be virtualized and enjoy all the benefits that come along with the database sitting on a virtualization infrastructure. ?For example, the database would no longer have to be shut down to upgrade the physical server the database was housed on. For a DBAs that are used to too many late nights and weekends to perform critical upgrades, this is music to their ears. It’s a real game changer for the quality of life for a DBA.
VMware ESXi is a type 1, non-paravirtualized hypervisor this means there are no changes to the kernel of the guest operating system. The DBA can rest assured their database will execute exactly the same way it has always has when it was on a physical server. ?For this reason and many others, there has been a huge surge within the marketplace to virtualize SQL Server and Oracle databases. I have seen this first hand at the many presentations where I poll the audience on this exact topic. The results of late have been overwhelming in terms of the percentage of the audience actively virtualizing databases.
The timing of this SQL Server workshop could not be better. To bring together 15 of the leading experts on SQL Server in a room for 3-day with top VMware engineers who will answer all their questions and, more importantly, provide them an infrastructure to try it all, makes this an unprecedented workshop. I have seen vendors in the past do Demos, but not many who are willing to bring in experts of this caliber and let them try the technology for themselves. You be the judge of the quality of these attendees:
Michael Corey ? President Ntirety ? co-author of 18 Books
David Klee ? Founder of Heraflux, frequent blogger, Presenter numerous SQLSaturdays
Kevin Kline – Director of Engineering Services SQL Sentry Corp
Grant Fritchey? Red Gate Software ? Author of three SQL Server books
Argenis Fernandez ? Blogger at? ?sqlblog.com?
Thomas LaRock ? President Professional Association of SQL Server
Christopher Bell – DC chapter of PASS founder – CEO WaterOX Consulting
Rodney Landrum ? SQL Saturdays regular and many well-known blogs
Kendal Van Dyke ? Upsearch Principle Consultant
Keith Allen Kinsel ? SQL Saturday Advisory Council
Joseph D’Antoni ? Senior Architect, Anexinet
Denny Cherry ? Denny Cherry associates and Consulting founder
Andrew J. Kelly ? SoildQ ?? Weekly speaker at events worldwide
Allen White ? Upsearch – Ohio SQL User group president writes for SQL Pass Magazine
Andy Galbraith ? Ntirety, Blogger, Presentor at SQLSaturdays
Many of you now these different people by their twitter handles. A partial list includes:
@SQLRockstar, @kleegeek, @SQLBEAT, @DBA_ANDY, @mrdenny, @jdanton, @Michael_corey, @SQLDBA, CBellDBA,? @GFritchey
This is a group of people who are passionate about SQL Server and not shy to share their opinion good or bad. As this SQL Server database virtualization on vSphere workshop progresses I will try to share more with you of what we learn.
World-Class Lineup of Speakers
With the SQL Server workshop being held at VMware headquarters it enables VMware to provide a very distinguished list of speakers for these attendees to interact with from key software engineers within VMware to top executive management at the company. The opening speaker is Pat Gelsinger the Chief Executive Officer of VMware who will be starting off the SQL Server workshop.
The fact Pat is making time himself to kickoff this event demonstrates a strong commitment at the top at VMware to how important it is to provide a robust virtualized platform to run your databases on.
On day two the event is kicked off by Scott Dietzen the CEO of Pure Storage. For Pure Storage corporation let this group of SQL Server experts kick the tires on a Pure Storage array says a lot about the confidence they have in their product and its abilty to support the most demanding of all business critical applications, A dataase.
In my opinion both VMware and Pure Storage are going the extra mile to prove that the most demanding SQL Server databases can be virtualized on VMware vSphere with confidence.
The 3-day line up of presentations and workshops is quite intensive. Topics to be covered include:
- vSphere Core
- vMotion, DRS, & HA Considerations
- Pure Storage Technical Overview
- Storage Fundementals
- Windows Clustering
- Networking, VCNS and NSX
Looking forward to being part of this workshop and a chance to collaborate with the esteemed group of speakers.
Michael Corey
Ntirety – A Division of Hosting
My Personal Twitter Account:?Michael_Corey
Ntirety Corporate Twitter Account:?Ntirety
Database Administration As A Service? is a registered trademark of Ntirety, Inc