Well it’s been Partner Day here at VMworld Europe today.  Unfortunately I didn’t have a pass to this event so it wasn’t looking likely that I’d get in though as luck would have it I managed to ‘obtain’ a pass in the end.  I was late getting in so missed over half of the key note speech headed by VMware’s CEO, Paul Maritz.  This keynote has been blogged extensively by others who were there for the entire thing so I won’t re-invent the wheel but will draw your attention to a couple of key product announcements:

vSphere – The new name for VMware’s next generation of Enterprise virtualization products.

vShield zones – A new security product suite.

vCenter Server Heartbeat – vCenter high availability.

Check out these other blogs for more details on the Partners Day keynote:

vinf.net

vmguru.nl

As mentioned previously this is my first VMworld Europe so it has been interesting to see the venue for a first time.  One of the first things that struck myself and vinf.net today was that the venue felt quite ‘busy’ today with the 1500 VMware Partner attendees.  So what is it going to feel like for the next 3 days with 4000 moving around the venue and trying to get into sessions?  If this figure of 4000 is correct I foresee definite queues and the whole things will be rather cosy.  Perhaps it will just adds to the atmosphere. 

I added some video footage today of the Solutions Exchange area on the lower ground floor today – check out my Qik.com video page here.  As you can see it was still being set up though looks really good!  (Perhaps this is where the other 2500 people will go, lol).  The ioko stand that I will be assisting in manning (politically correct version: personning – is that actually a word?  ) looks great.

I’m looking forward to the start of the main VMworld show tomorrow and any additional announcements!

Photo’s from today – to follow.