Well, we knew this day would come and lo and behold it is finally here.  For those who don’t know Tech Field Day is an event which brings together Independent Industry Thought Leaders with IT Vendors with interesting, innovative or otherwise compelling products to discuss.   The Delegates are bloggers, speakers, writers, podcasters and otherwise those who have a social presence with great influence on the products and companies as perceived by IT Practitioners.

We never knew if I’d ever make it as a Delegate because one of the ‘rules’ since its inception is simply… You cannot be a vendor.   Well, with the exception of the past two years in Afghanistan (couldn’t get away to delegate, so to speak :)) I was as Vendor as you could get with NetApp and EMC.   So finally, It’s here! I’m not only officially a delegate but I’m officially back into the game of an independent thought leader… The kind who likes to take things to the EXTREME to understand them and ensure I’m providing the most accurate picture of whatever I am talking about!

What are the details for Virtualization Tech Field Day 4?!

This ought to be fun.  January 14th through the 16th in Austin, TX we will be going toe to toe with numerous vendors!

I’ll be honest… the capturing of these company images kind of sucks, but it is what it is. At least they’re clickable! <3

But the best part, next to the vendors themselves honestly, has to be the various Delegates. I mean c’mon these are rockstars in their own right and it’s not a companies product which is as valuable as the insight these Delegates offer.

	Amit Panchal	@AmitPanchal76	Technical IT Manager and blogger at apanchal.com.
	Amy Manley	@WyrdGirl	12 years in IT, vExpert and an automation junkie
	Christopher Kusek	@cxi	CTO at @Xiologix – EVP of Engineering, Technology Evangelist, vExpert, EMC Elect, BDA, CISSP, MCT, Cloud, Ninja, Vegan, Single, Father, Cat, Humorist, Author
	Emad Younis	@Emad_Younis	Emad is a datacenter enthusiast, 2 x vExpert, and blogger @ emadyounis.com.
	James Green	@JDGreen	James is an independent blogger at www.virtadmin.com, a 2014 vExpert, and works as a virtualization consultant in the Midwest.
	Jeff Wilson	@Agnostic_Node1	Passionate yet disciplined virtualization & storage engineer in the SME market.
	Julian Wood	@Julian_Wood	Julian is a London based enterprise infrasstructure architect and blogger.
	Justin Warren	@JPWarren	Justin is a consultant and freelance journalist who enjoys coding in Python and words that are fun to say, like ‘llama’ and ‘shenanigans’.
	Larry Smith	@MrLESmithJr	19 yrs. in IT | 11 yrs. VMware virtualization | VMware NSX Nut
	Marco Broeken	@MBroeken	Dutch Virtualization Admirer and DaaS Lover, Blogger at www.vClouds.nl
	Matt Simmons	@StandaloneSA	Small Infrastructure IT Administrator in Academia
	Mike Preston	@MWPreston	3 x vExpert, blogger @ mwpreston.net and typical Canadian eh!

It will be a pretty busy schedule, but we’ll stay on top of it!

• Wednesday, Jan 14 – 09:30 – 11:30 –SimpliVity Presents at Virtualization Field Day 4
• Wednesday, Jan 14 – 13:00 – 15:00 – Platform9 Systems Presents at Virtualization Field Day 4
• Wednesday, Jan 14 – 15:30 – 17:30 – VMTurbo Presents at Virtualization Field Day 4
• Thursday, Jan 15 – 08:00 – 10:00 – StorMagic Presents at Virtualization Field Day 4
• Thursday, Jan 15 – 10:30 – 12:30 – SolarWinds Presents at Virtualization Field Day 4
• Thursday, Jan 15 – 13:30 – 15:30 – CommVault Presents at Virtualization Field Day 4
• Friday, Jan 16 – 08:00 – 12:00 – Dell Presents at Virtualization Field Day 4
• Friday, Jan 16 – 13:00 – 15:00 – Scale Computing Presents at Virtualization Field Day 4

And of course a hearty thanks go out to the Event Staff who make this possible, the beautiful Stephen Foskett @SFoskett and the dashing Tom Hollingsworth @NetworkingNerd 

So check it out as I know you will, not to mention the deeply grueling and intensive times I know I’ll be giving the vendors because I’ve been one and I know what it’s like ;) And be sure to check out the numerous blogs coming!

You ever been like, “Man, I wish more organizations would help out non-profits” Well, guess what. Nutanix is. :)

So let’s break it down a bit! in the event that you find yourself too busy to actually click on their site and want the details!

Submission Period (October 15 – November 21, 2014)

• Anyone can nominate a non-profit to participate! To qualify, the organization must:
• Be a non-profit, non-partisan organization located in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, or the United Kingdom
• Have a currently working datacenter that could benefit from web-scale converged infrastructure
• Be able to complete and meet Environment Assessment criteria. Read the full terms & conditions

Judging Period (November 21 – December 10, 2014)

• A panel of community judges will select the top three finalists.

Voting Day (December 10, 2014)

• Watch the virtual event on December 10th to hear from the three finalists and cast your vote to determine the winner!
• Voting will be open to the public for 24 hours.

Winner Announced! (December 11, 2014)

• The Grand Prize winner will receive a Web-Scale Datacenter Makeover, implemented in 48 hours by a Nutanix team!

Prizes!

The Grand Prize Package

• NX-3350
• 3 Ultimate Software Licenses
• 3 Years of Support
• 2-Day Installation Services
• One organization will receive a 48-Hour Web-Scale Datacenter Makeover, implemented by a Nutanix team!

Two Finalist Packages

• NX-1350
• 3 Ultimate Software Licenses
• 3 Years of Support

Nominate & Get a T-Shirt!

• Exclusively for Web-Scale Wish participants

So get out there, with this last week left and sign up, nominate, win a shirt and help out a non-profit! <3

#Update# This is no longer valid – Please check out my #AsteriskGate post for details;

VMware feels the ‘pinch’ and “invalidates” the VCP-NV as a “valid VCP Certification” #AsteriskGate

#SadEndUpdate#

So you’re a long time virtualization user. You’ve worked with the systems, you love VMware! (You might even have a bumper sticker on your laptop stating as such) Yet… You never got your VCP.

What?! Why aren’t you a VCP?

This is a problem which plagues many an Admin who will often be multi-skilled and can justify the $225 price-tag to take the exam but whose employer will NOT pay for you to be away from the office, nor the hefty price tag often associated with the VCP course itself.  Yea, we get that, so what?!

The VCP-NV will be your savior! (Until 28FEB2015)

So for those of you who are familiar, VMware has introduced the VCP Network Virtualization an exam which is focused heavily on the Nicira product (Named NSX, and occasionally vCNS related stuff for you vCloudy’s out there!)  Also for a limited time they have introduced a unique ‘program’ with this which is…

If you have a Valid CCNA Data Center or CCNA Routing & Switching or CCNP Data Center or CCNP Routing & Switching certification you are eligible to take the VCP-NX without having to have a classroom requirement! Full details can be found at VMware’s site here on the VCP-NV.

Wait, how does this help me with my VCP-DCV?!

I knew you were going to ask that question.  Well, take a journey with me, shall we?

1. Earn your CCNA Routing and Switching (It’s the cheapest of the options available)
   1. (Unless you already have a CCNA R&S then you’re on the way!)
2. Submit verification of Cisco Certification to VMware (Details here)
3. Study for and pass the VCP-NX
4. Now you’re officially a VCP, which grandfathers you into the ability to pass ANY VCP Exam and earn the VCP designation without classroom requirement!
5. Schedule and pass the VCP-DCV (and/or VCP-DT, VCP-Cloud)
   1. If you schedule your exam BEFORE 1JAN2015 you can use VCPRECERT25 for 25% off! (See link)
   2. If you schedule your exam BEFORE 19DEC2014 and are located in APJ/APAC get 50% off! (See Link)
6. BOOM YOU’RE CERTIFIED!

Some of you might feel this is a lot of work. I don’t think any of us didn’t say it WAS, however it is also NOT having to take the classroom requirement and get around this little issue which quite frankly is awesome! :)  For a lot of us, it is really about principle and anything we can do to avoid an arbitrary classroom will work, that and in many cases it is quite cheaper AND expands your possible horizons! <3

Whoa whoa whoa, wait a minute. You just put out a blog post for 15% off Microsoft Exams and 25% off VMware Exams and countless OTHER forms of free training and certification and now you’re telling me we can get 50% off on VMware Certifications?!?!

Well, no.

What I am saying is that if you’re in APJ / APAC, or more specifically the following countries;

• Australia, New Zealand, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, India, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan and Korea

THEN you get 50% off Certification. Those of us in the US, Canada, LATAM and Europe… not so much. But hey, at least SOMEONE is getting a discount, right? (I wish it were me! :))

The full scoop of details can be found here at Save 50% off All VMware exams but the really important parts you can get here…

One nice thing is this is Multi-Use and Multi-Person, so if you’ve been planning to knock out your VCP-NV or update to add Cloud, you can!

• Schedule your exam between Oct 27 and Dec 19, 2014
• VCP Exams: VFVCP1450
• Advanced (VCAP) Exams: VFADV1450
• A Must-Read before taking your next #VMware VCP or VCAP Exam!!! (You must Authorize)

And there you go! Go out there and enjoy something which the rest of us cannot. :)

So, Corey Romero @vCommunityGuy recently put out this gem of a blog post vExpert 2015 applications are open which if you’re a previous vExpert or you think you’re the next up and coming vExpert, OR if you’d like to nominate someone you think absolutely rocks? Well, This is the post!

To sum up some of the key points from Corey’s post;

• Applications will be accepted until December 12th at midnight PST
• Applications received after the December 12th deadline will roll into the next nomination & voting process
• vExpert 2015 announcement will be on February 5th 2015.

And of course the ever so important links in the event that you don’t click on Corey’s post! :)

• 2014 vExperts: Fastrack application
• New vExperts: 2015 vExpert application
• Recommendation:  Recommend a colleague to apply for 2015 vExpert
• (They will still need to fill out the full application)

If you’re not sure whether you should be vExpert material, or what it really takes to apply… Feel free to check out my post from 2012!

The Non-definitive guide to the VMware vExpert Program, Tips, Tricks, How to become a vExpert!

So existing vExperts, go fill out your Fastrack application, new vExpert hopefuls, go get your application rocking out, and get those nominations in for the lesser known vExpert who don’t realize that they truly are a vExpert…’’