It’s been almost 2 weeks since VeeamON ended and I thought it was time to reflect on some of the (big) changes that are coming. First off, thanks again to Veeam for sponsoring the conference and hotel. The Diplomat in Fort Lauderdale was amazing; the conference was at the hotel and one did not have to walk a mile to go between sessions, vendors and hotel room. Much appreciated!
A little while back I was honored to be part of the first, inaugural class by Object First, called Aces. I first learned a about Object First during a VeeamON conference and was intrigued by the concept of having object storage in the Datacenter vs cloud.
Geoff from Object First reached out to me and offered to “test-drive” a box in my home-lab. Of course I wouldn’t say no , I mean who would? So this will be the first of a blog series talking Object First and Veeam. Many thanks again for letting me “play” with the box.
Veeam released an early Christmas present yesterday (12/5), the very much anticipated version 12.1!
12.1 was much talked about during the most excellent Veeam 100 summit in Prague a little while ago. It is a non-breaking release, packed with enhancements and features. I’m quite surprised this is only a X.1 release, it would easily qualify for a major release.
Here are “some” of the features in 12.1:
I’m particular existed about Yara rules and improvements to SureBackup. SureBackup can now randomly test VMs, which is great for auditing purposed to document that your backups are working. In addition, SureBackup does not depend on a virtual lab anymore, which should make initial setup a lot easier.
Oh boy was it hot in Florida…but what a great conference it was. After being back for a few weeks I decided to write down my impressions about VeeamOn
This was my second VeeamOn to attend. I’m forever grateful being a Veeam Vanguard member and being invite by Veeam to attend. What a great opportunity! If you are curious about Veeam Vanguard and the Veeam 100 program, please follow this link to learn more.
This year’s VeeamOn took place at the beautifully Fontainebleau hotel in Miami from May 22nd to May 25th. I hadn’t been in Miami for more than 20 years, and I had never stayed at such a hotel. A fun fact about this hotel, many popular movies took place there, like Goldfinger, Scarface, or War Dogs. The even have a special website where all the movies are listed.
As part of the Veeam Vanguard program I was invited to participate in the community event in Prague, Czech Republic. This was the first time for me, and I’m forever grateful to be part of this group. This was also the first time of a combined event between Veeam MVPs, Veeam Legends and Veeam Vanguards.
It’s now been a few days after VeeamOn 2022, and I had some time to reflect on the first conference I attended post-Covid. (yes, I know Covid is still very much alive, but hybrid conferences are starting to be the new norm).
So, let me first say it was a blast. I have done, I don’t know how many, virtual conferences in the past 2 years (or 10, because if feels like eternity). When I attended the first virtual conference in 2020, Cisco Live, it was a novelty, but by the end of 2021, it surely had lost its appeal. And by no means do I want to diminish the work organizers put into a virtual conference; you just can’t beat meeting people in person to exchange ideas and build relationships.
VeeamOn is happening in-person and virtual next week (May 16th-19th). This is a hybrid event, and for me a special one; It will be my first VeeamOn event and the first conference I will attend in person since the pandemic. I’m stoked to be going back to Las Vegas in a week.
While 2021 was a bit challenging so far, I learned the great news last week that I was select to be part of the 2021 Veeam Vanguard class!
For those not familiar with Veeam Vanguard (or Veeam), check out their site about Veeam Vanguards.
Veeam Vanguards are considered experts in their respected fields and believe in the power of the community. Now, I by no means consider myself an expert, there is always so much to learn, but I definitely believe in community and giving back what you can. I don’t know the countless times someone’s blog really helped me solve a problem I was having or a post on Twitter.
One of the greatest benefits of programs like Veeam Vanguard is being able to network with others in the industry. You might run into an issue and just ask in the Slack channel. Chances are someone else has seen this before and knows how to fix it. Plus, there are betas for testing on your home lap, licenses (Veeam already has great community editions), exclusive access to VeeamOn, and just awesomeness all around.
Speaking of, seeing all those names who are part of this program the imposter syndrome is definitely lurking and wanting to take hold!
Many thanks again to all who make this possible! Including Rick Vanover, Danny Allan, Niels Engelen, Anthony Spiteri, Michael Cade, Andrew Zhelezko, Anton Gostev, Rin Bessette, Melissa Palmer, and Nikola Pejková. (I’m sure I might have forgotten some, apologies)
Also special shout-out to Joe Hughes, Jim Jones and Al Rasheed!
Like many others in the community I was very excited when I heard that ESXi on Arm is now general available. I heard about it first a few years back at VMworld, where a demo was shown. So, like many others I jumped to Amazon to get myself a Raspberry Pi 4 Kit. I opted to get the 8GB version, just in case.
Here at our little shop, I have been using Veeam for more than 5 years. It was already implemented when I got here, but I quickly decided to completely rebuild it from scratch and have been pretty happy with it. Of course, the build-out changes over time, as new features become available and/or requirements change.
