Eric Sloof - NTPRO.NL

Last week I created the VMware LinkedIn Groups and received a lot of positive responses. One reaction caught my eye, it was a message from Robin Prudholm asking me if he could join the VCP group with VCP number 52. My first thought was “Wow VCP number 52��?, I want to know more about that guy. One thing led to another and Robin was nice enough to answer a few questions. But first let’s start with a short introduction.


Robin Prudholm is a Senior Systems Engineer and Technical Spokesman for the Nordics at VMware for 3 years now, he lives nearby Copenhagen, Denmark. Robin has over 20 years of experience in the IT-industry.



I asked Robin if he experienced the VCP exam as difficult ?

Well, first exam was taken just after I got introduced to VMware and the fact that I was designated to be the first VMware instructor in the Nordics… I took the course with Richard Garsthagen and Brian Rice as trainers, and that did make it a bit easier as they both are top notch! Spend an additional 2 weeks reading like crazy (Linux part of it was all news to me, a long time MCSE with Windows as main focus) and took the test… Passed with 80% and had to have VUE reopen it, as I needed minimum 85% the VCI (*sigh*). Another week of intense studying and I was ready for another shot at it; passed with 92% (if memory serves me right, it is a while ago) and what a happy day… §;-)

Did being a VCP influence your career ?

It most certainly did… Being the first VCI in the Nordics and the only one doing training here for about a year, meant that I was able to build avery good network with all the Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish and Danish partner engineers/consultants coming for the training. VMware was just starting up their business in this region at that time, so it gave me an opportunity to be part of the virtualization revolution from day one. When VMware needed their first Partner SE in the region, I was lucky enough to make the move to VMware and what a great move that has been! VMware is a fantastic company to work for; not only is the technology cutting edge and just world class, the one thing that strikes me working for this great company, is the quality of the people working here. I have never in my entire career worked with so many talented colleagues, it is a fantastic team and a great inspiration!

Denmark is one of the leading countries in Europe why ?

Well, not just Denmark, but the Nordics in general have always been very technology ready… Customers here are very quick to adopt and embrace new technology, to take advantage of the business benefits that it brings to the table. I think there are primarily 2 main reasons for this
a. Tax is very high in this region (also on business) and that means wages are comparatively higher here, then in the rest of Europe/US. This means Nordic companies have to find other ways of cutting costs to be able to compete internationally and adopting new technology with real impact on the bottom line faster than the competition is certainly one way to achieve this.
b. Generally the level of education in the Nordics is very high, and I think that makes it easier to explain to customers the benefits of new emerging technology.

I can share the happy feeling with Robin when passing the exam above the 85%, it took me three times. When you want to know more about VMware activity in the Nordics, you should visit http://www.vmug.dk using an online Danisch translator. ;-)

Richard Garsthagen over at Run-Virtual.com created some introduction video’s to warm you up for Europe’s virtualization event of the year.

Richard - General Introduction
Carter - Simplifying VMware Automation with PowerShell
Bing - NFS & iSCSI - Performance Characterization
Ashwin - Best Practices for deploying VI3 v3.5 in your environment

 vmSight, the first and leading provider of virtual network intelligence, announced the first report pack release for its product suite. Offering key intelligence data required for IT planning, IT accounting and IT auditing, the report pack consists of easy-to-add templates that enable scheduled reports, approval workflows and alerts within vmSight’s virtual network intelligence product suite, which provides extensive analytics and alerts on all activities within virtual networks. Report Pack Templates Include System Management and HIPAA & PCI Compliance Reports for Virtual Networks.

Introducing ivi - a Java Virtual Interface for VMware, Xen, KVM, and OpenVZ, ivi (pronounced eve-e) stands for Java Virtual Interface and it is a project that aims to create a single, graphical, management interface for all the major virtualization products. ivi is implemented in Java+Swing, so it is truly portable. Currently ivi uses the VI3 SDK to communicate with VI servers and the XenApi to talk to Xen servers. Future plans include adding support for libvirt to allow communication with KVM and OpenVZ, and eventually support for the Common Information Model (CIM) as a way to talk with VMware, Xen, and Microsoft all through one interface.

You can read more about ivi at http://www.lostcreations.com/code/wiki/ivi.

New on vm4all.com Change Reporter for VI 3 : Change auditing is an important process for controlling the management of your virtual environment, to limit unauthorized changes and errors in VI3 inventory. Erroneous and unauthorized changes usually occur every day in organizations in which many IT professionals manage different aspects of virtual infrastructure. Such changes can cause failures and outages in your virtual infrastructure. NetWrix Change Reporter for VMware Infrastructure 3 audits all changes and enforces controlled change management processes across your virtual environment. This freeware tool sends a daily report pointing to every change made to your ESX servers, folders, clusters, resource pools, virtual machines, and their hardware (*), including previous and current ("before" and "after") configuration values.

Quest announced it has completed the acquisition of Vizioncore, a leading provider of disaster recovery and other products for virtual infrastructure management. Initially acquiring a controlling interest in Vizioncore in 2005, Quest broadened its virtualization product portfolio in 2007 with the acquisitions of Invirtus, a provider of virtual machine optimization, conversion and automation products, and Provision Networks, a leader in virtual client and desktop management solutions. Quest has also added industry visionary Scott Herold to the virtualization business as its Lead Architect. “Scott is a recognized expert in the field of virtualization. I look forward to leveraging his unique blend of practical experience, market knowledge, and visionary thinking across the entire virtualization business.� Scott will Generate new product ideas and enhancements into growing line of virtualization products. He also will review market trends to determine key technologies for integration with existing technologie and perform technical analysis of potential acquisition targets in the virtualization space. The photo was taken by Viktor van den Berg during the TSX 2007 event in Nice where I conducted an interview with Scott about the upcoming VI3: Advanced Technical Design Guide.

Dave Repczynski and his VKernel crew have recently finished up a series of online Chargeback and Cost Visibility workshops with VMware's Expert Sessions and now they're scheduling a bunch of live sessions. If you're interested or know some else that is, just sign up here. The workshops are purely to learn and focus on industry best practices and standards.

Eric Sloof created three new LinkedIn Groups and would like to invite you to join them. If you don’t know what a LinkedIn group is, here is a short explanation : Many professionals advance their careers and business goals by counting on industry and professional groups, alumni organizations, industry conferences and corporate alumni groups to help them make vital new business contacts. The VMware LinkedIn Groups offers extra features stay in touch with one another and discover powerful new business contacts within their groups and beyond.

VMware Virtualization Group

Gavin Barnard over at VMware created the VMware Virtualization Group on LinkedIn. Joining will allow you to find and contact other Virtualization professionals on LinkedIn. This is a VMware led group for virtualization professionals to expand their network of contacts, share idea's and increase market awareness. "A virtual VMworld" Here's the link to Join.


VMware Certified Professional (VCP)

Members of this group have gained the in-depth skills and industry-recognized certification on VMware technology. The VMware Certified Professional Program is designed for everyone who wants to demonstrate their expertise in virtual infrastructure and increase his potential for career advancement. If you are a VCP you can join this group.

VMware Certified Instructor (VCI)

As a VMware certified instructor you can help organisations who want to maximise the benefits of the VMware virtualisation products. Their IT professionals will benefit from attending in-depth, hands-on courses. If you are a VCI you can join this group.

the official Dutch VMUG

The Dutch VMware User Group (VMUG) program is designed to encourage and support the Dutch community of VMware users. If you are a Dutch VMware fan, you can use this link to join the group.