Sunday marked the beginning of VMWorld 2017 and the “Mandalay Bay convention center” was transformed into tech capital, with the presence of the biggest cloud infrastructure brands and digital transformation technology. Naturally, the focus is on VMware, but in the background, the visitors can notice a continuing trend of digital transformation. As cloud and mobile technology emerge and drive the industry towards better connectivity and visibility, VMware, and the tools that enable and support it, will become increasingly important for enterprises large and small.

All Sunday morning events were turned over to VMware partners with an eye towards promoting the namesake’s virtualization capabilities, and the real excitement was the grand opening of the expo with all the attendant networking, live demoing, and Of course, the highlight of every event - swag.

Our first day conclusion is that this year’s VMWorld will be dominated by four key trends:

Containers: these will become less container-y: containers have traditionally relied on VMs for both resource and security management, but new alternatives are starting to arise, solutions which will enable increased efficiency and flexibility. Look out here for news from VMWare. Serverless computing is continuing to grow: last year, the promise of serverless computing was highlighted as a future trend; The potential has been unlocked, and this year, it’s the hot technology. Serverless computing is becoming a serious consideration for cloud optimization. VMWare may also have interesting announcements up their sleeve. Storage is becoming center-stage again: thanks to rapid advancements in storage technology, servers are no longer the darling of the industry. Between jumps in flash software and the prominence of machine learning and artificial computing, storage vendors have been extra exuberant for this year’s VMWorld.. Focus and specialization- While digital transformation encompasses the entire business, we’re seeing more specialization across the expo floor from vendors of all sizes. Service providers are mapping their capabilities down to the specific functions. That may be a reason for why there’s been so much action on the expo floor.

Maybe it’s because of the Mayweather-McGregor match that went down last night - or maybe it’s the expedited advancement pace in IT infrastructure, the excitement at VMWorld 2017 is palpable. With several major announcements promised, and a packed line-up of sessions through Wednesday, we expect the pace won’t let up.

Tune in here for more on VMWorld 2017.

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