Unexplored Territory

#125 - Announcing the VCF Inspector Fling featuring Alan Renouf!

I noticed a blog post about a new fling called VCF Inspector last week, so I had to invite the author Alan Renouf to the show to talk us through it. VCF Inspector, in my opinion, is one of those tools that will be very valuable for everyone working with VCF, but especially for consultants and people managing many different environments. Just listen to the episode, and download the tool via the link in the blog post!

#124 - VMware Explore 2026, the podcast!

For me personally, VMware Explore is the event of the year and a very exciting (and stressful) time. I asked Nikki Sherin from the Explore team to talk us through what we can expect at Explore 2026, and I also asked my good friends William Lam, Alan Renouf, and Pete Flecha to explain to us what excites them most about the event. It was a fantastic conversation and I am definitely looking forward to meeting up with everyone at the event again. My Favorite Sessions: ⁠https://event.vmware.com/my/widget/vmware/explore2026lv/1784640936449001Ii9L⁠ Hackathon: https://blogs.vmware.com/code/2026/06/26/vmwarecode-hackathon-for-explore-las-vegas/ Schedule Builder: https://event.vmware.com/flow/vmware/explore2026lv/content Living on the edge - https://event.vmware.com/flow/vmware/explore2026lv/content/page/catalog?tab.sessioncatalogtabs=1747347809815001igUo&search=CLOB1260LV

#123 - Announcing the 5th edition of the IT Ops mgmt guidebook

For this episode I invited Iwan Rahabok to talk us through the recent announcement of the 5th edition of the IT Ops Management Guidebook. As I mentioned during this episode, this isn't just a book, this is a Resource Kit! What changed? 1000+ pages, and 4 parts. Lots of additional content & corrections compared to the 4th edition 2 years ago. Deeper. More technical. Leveling up to support private cloud architect. A booklet written for higher up management chain. New troubleshooting flows. Done in DrawIO so you can tailor for your needs Two brand new calculators VCF Ops vCommunity adapters. Built by Onur An agentic AI webiste: https://isvara.io/ built by Samir. What does not change: Still free. Still editable. So you can customize to your own organisation Download in the usual place: https://broadcom.ent.box.com/v/OpsYourWorld

#122 - Exploring the world of VCF Edge and Zero Touch Provisioning with Dhruv Tyagi

I read a few articles the last couple of months on the topic of VCF Edge by Dhruv Tyagi , and with the 9.1 release there were a couple of interesting posts about Zero Touch Provisioning, so it was time to invite him to the podcast and explore what VCF Edge is all about. Of course we also touch on things like Zero Touch Provisioning and how it helps customers deploy and manage thousands of hosts across countless locations. A very unique solution for a very specific problem! Want to know more, these were some of the documents, blogs, and demos discussed during this episode: VCF Edge: VCF Edge Design Library VCF Edge Design Blueprint for Manufacturing VCF Edge Design Blueprint for Defense ZTP: Blog - Zero Touch Provisioning: Activating Edge Sites with VMware Cloud Foundation Edge 9.1 Demo Video - Zero Touch Provisioning: Activating Edge Sites with VCF Edge 9.1 Tech Docs for ZTP

#121 - Operational, Disaster, and Ransomware Recovery using VCF Protection and Recovery featuring Velina Krasteva!

With VCF 9.1 the name of VMware Live Recovery, or Site Recovery Manager, seems to have changed to VCF Protection and Recovery. In this episode Velina explains how this platform provides administrators the ability to recover workloads from different types of scenarios. Whether you deleted a VM (operational recovery), lost a whole datacenter (disaster recovery), or had a security breach and found data encrypted (ransomware recovery), VCF Protection and Recovery has an end-to-end solution for you! Discussed topics: Ransomware Recovery Demo - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFjSCyLP384 Cyber resilience in 9.1 - https://blogs.vmware.com/cloud-foundation/2026/05/05/announcing-vcf-9-1-modern-private-cloud-built-for-efficiency-and-resilience/

#120 - Announcing VCF Native S3 Object Storage, featuring Rakesh!

VCF Native S3 Object Storage is a major feature that was announced with VCF 9.1. Pete Koehler introduced it in episode 118 and I wanted to explore what it is all about in this episode with Rakesh. Rakesh goes over what was announced with 9.1, what the timelines look like, discusses the use cases for the platform, and reveals what you can expect in the (near) future. All the topics and links discussed can be found here: https://blogs.vmware.com/cloud-foundation/2026/05/13/native-s3-compatible-object-storage-in-vmware-vsan-for-vcf-9-1/ https://blogs.vmware.com/cloud-foundation/2026/05/05/announcing_vsan_in_vcf_9-1/ Disclaimer: VCF Native S3 Object Storage has not been released yet, it has only been announced. As Rakesh has mentioned, the plan is to release it in a future patch release as a tech preview, followed by an "MVP" release after that. As always, there's no commitment to any timeline or delivery of any feature at this stage.

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#119 - All things (VCF 9.1) security featuring Bob Plankers!

Recently I realized I hadn't had Bob Plankers on the show yet, so it was time to get him to join the show and talk all things security. Bob goes over all the various features we introduced related to security in VCF 9.1, and also gives a quick overview of what we've had available in VCF and vSphere for decades now. All the topics and links discussed can be found here: https://github.com/vmware/vcf-security-and-compliance-guidelines https://blogs.vmware.com/cloud-foundation/2025/08/06/confidential-computing-vmware-cloud-foundation-9-0/ https://blogs.vmware.com/cloud-foundation/2025/08/05/security-vmware-cloud-foundation-9-0/ https://blogs.vmware.com/cloud-foundation/2026/05/05/platform-security-vcf-9-1/

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#118 - What's new for vSAN with VCF 9.1 featuring Pete Koehler!

Broadcom just announced VCF 9.1, so it was time to get an expert on the show to talk us through the enhancements that will be coming for vSAN specifically. As always, Pete Koehler shared all the facts and figures of the release. He discusses Global Dedupe, Native S3 Object Storage, Ransomware Protection and Recovery and much more! vSAN 9.1 announcement vSAN Compression and Global Dedupe in VCF 9.1 Cyber Recovery Ready Nodes! vSAN Auto-RAID

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#117 - An update on all things Memory Tiering featuring Arvind Jagannath!

Arvind is back to provide an update on all things Memory Tiering. The interest in Memory Tiering is high due to insane memory prices and supply chain issues. Arvind goes over the basics of memory tiering and provide an insight into what to expect in the upcoming release of VCF/vSphere when it comes to Memory Tiering! Some of the items discussed: Performance whitepaper here: https://www.vmware.com/docs/memtier-vcf9-perf Memory tiering doc's which describes how to disable it on a VM: https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/vsphere/vsphere/9-0/how-do-i-activate-memory-tiering-in-vsphere-.html Many different blogs, and an assessment script by Dave Morera: https://blogs.vmware.com/cloud-foundation/vcf-advanced-memory-tiering/

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#116 - A VMware Cloud Foundation constructs primer featuring Gary Blake!

I sometimes get confused when people talk about VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) Fleets, Instances, and Domains! So I decided to invite Gary Blake to the show to explain to us all the various constructs, how they relate to each other, and what you should take into consideration when you are designing a VCF-based infrastructure! You can find the links to some of the discussed articles and documents below. VMware Cloud Foundation 9 Latency Diagram On-Prem VVD for Ransomware Recovery VCF Design Guide

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#115 - GPU resource management for AI workloads with Frank Denneman!

Recently, Frank published a series of blog posts on GPU resource management. I invited Frank to the show to explain why GPU resource management is different than CPU and memory management in vSphere. Frank goes over all the intricate details, and as always, dives deep into the various constructs involved. I highly recommend reading the articles which are part of the following series, and make sure to also check the tool Frank developed, as this helps visualizing the challenges you may face today, or potentially in the future! https://frankdenneman.ai/ai-infrastructure/ https://frankdenneman.ai/understanding-ai-memory/ https://frankdenneman.ai/tools/

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#114 - vSAN Storage Clusters with Kalyan Krishnaswamy!

Recently there was a big announcement about the adoption of vSAN Storage Clusters by Audi. All the reasons for me to invite Kalyan back to the show. During this episode, Kalyan not only discusses what was announced specifically with Audi, but also goes over some of the recently introduced functionality like vSAN traffic seperation, vSphere only clusters support for stretched with vSAN Storage Clusters, and much more. Some of the discussed papers and blogs: Audi case study: https://blogs.vmware.com/cloud-foundation/2025/03/27/audi-introduces-smart-manufacturing-with-vcf-edge/ Lower requirements for vSAN: https://blogs.vmware.com/cloud-foundation/2025/11/14/driving-down-storage-costs-with-lower-hardware-requirements-for-vsan/

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#113 - Procuring hardware for a vSAN based VCF infrastructure - featuring John Nicholson!

I've been on the Virtually Speaking podcast several times, so it was time to invite one of the hosts to the Unexplored Territory Podcast and discuss his favorite topic, hardware configurations, and the bill of materials! John Nicholson goes over all the ins and outs of procuring new hardware and talks about ordering components for existing hardware. We discuss NICs, Switches, Ready Node configurations, Emulated Ready Node configurations, NVMe devices, and much more. During the discussion, various blogs and videos were mentioned, make sure to check those as well! https://blogs.vmware.com/cloud-foundation/2023/07/26/expanded-hardware-compatibility-for-vsan-express-storage-architecture/ https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article/326476/what-you-can-and-cannot-change-in-a-vsan.html https://blogs.vmware.com/cloud-foundation/2023/07/27/yes-you-can-change-things-on-a-vsan-esa-readynode/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjen1ER8ASc https://www.vmware.com/explore/video-library/video/6360757998112

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#112 - Introducing VMware vDefend featuring Chris McCain!

A few episodes ago we had Yves Hertoghs on the show to discuss networking, so I decided it was also time to discuss security. As Chris McCain has been at the forefront of networking and security at VMware for over a decade, it only made sense to reach out and invite him to introduce vDefend! Not only was Chris part of the Explore keynote, but he also delivered various excellent sessions on networking and security in the past couple of years, and I would highly encourage you to watch those as well! Explore 2025 - Demystifying VMware vDefend Distributed Security Within VMware Cloud Foundation Explore 2025 - Building Secure Private AI Deep Dive

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#111 - VMUG Connect, coming to a city near you soon! (Featuring Brad Tompkins)

In 2025 the first VMUG Connect event was held in the US, and as it was a big success VMUG decided to repeat that formula in Amsterdam, Minneapolis, Toronto, Dallas and Orlando. I invited Brad Tompkins to the show to explain what these VMUG events are all about, and also provide some insights into the world of VMUG. I have the pleasure, and honor, to host a keynote session in Amsterdam at Connect in March. I hope to see all of you there. For more details on pricing, locations, and more, make sure to visit the VMUG Connect website. Also, if you are planning on attending, I would highly encourage you to book asap as we've seen Explore on Tour selling out everywhere...

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#110 - vSAN over Fibre Channel featuring Rakesh Radhakrishnan!

After Rakesh and I shared the news at Explore, and Explore On Tour, that vSAN would potentially be able to use Fibre Channel as a transport layer, since then the phone has been ringing nonstop. So it was time for me to invite Rakesh and ask him to explain what vSAN over FC is all about. In this episode Rakesh covers the why, the what, but unfortunately the when is still a question. Nevertheless, this episode is a must-listen! Discussed papers/links: ​vSAN vs Traditional Storage video ​vSAN beats all-flash top storage system

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#109 - An introduction to Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) featuring Yves Hertoghs

VMware Cloud Foundation 9 has brought the Virtual Private Cloud networking model front and center in the vSphere UI. Not only has it become extremely easy to provide a self-service solution for networking, it comes with a plethora of networking services and capabilities. Maybe even more importantly, it allows networking-noobs (like myself) to consume advanced functionality without having to file dozens of service requests. In this episode, Yves Hertoghs explains what a Virtual Private Cloud is and discusses all the ins and outs around the Transit Gateway, vDefend, subnets and much more.

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#108 - My Explore recap: VCF Native S3 Object Storage, Cyber Recovery, and vSAN on FC!

I had some trouble scheduling guests the past weeks, and as a result, I figured I would try something new. In this episode I go over the various things I announced at Explore and Explore on Tour in London, Paris, and Frankfurt. I talk about VCF Native S3 Object Storage, the enhancements we are planning for Disaster Recovery as well as Cyber Recovery, and I also briefly touch on vSAN on FC. If you like to hear more about vSAN ESA Global Deduplication, make sure to go to this blog on Yellow-Bricks, as it contains the links to the discussion Pete Koehler and I had on the show a while back.

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#107 - Why VCF is the best platform for your modern workloads featuring Jad El-Zein!

Recently, I read this article about why VCF is the best platform for modern workloads, so I figured I would invite the author, Jad El-Zein. Jad and I discuss all the arguments of why VCF and all components are the perfect destination for containers, or I should probably say your modern workloads.

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#106 - Why a valued partner like ITQ believes in Broadcom's strategy and the VMware portfolio!

Recently, I read a fantastic LinkedIn post by Francisco Perez van der Oord, the founder of ITQ, in which he explained why he believes in Broadcom's strategic direction and the VMware portfolio. It was an interesting read, and for me, a great reason to invite one of our most valued partners in EMEA to the show. I want to thank Francisco for taking the time to sit down, as I know he has a crazy schedule. Enjoy the conversation!

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