How would you compare the success of the Philadelphia area VMUG’s with other User Groups? 

PAVMUG was established in 2004 when VMware first initiated the user group (VMUG) program and so we have had time to develop relationships with a large number of national and regional vendors who sponsor our meetings and deliver the majority of our presentations. We have also established a local presence and a routine that seems to work for the professionals and students who attend the PAVMUG meetings. 

Our meetings are held at a branch campus of Penn State University that is a graduate center for business and technical masters’ degrees. Our central location makes it possible for attendees from PA, NJ, MD and DE to attend our meetings. As far as membership and event attendance, PAVMUG is probably in the top 10% of VMUGs. Last year’s annual PAVMUG conference attracted approximately 600 attendees and 30 vendors with 40 presentation sessions. Some of our user attendees are starting to deliver presentations and looking forward, I think we will have more users sharing their success stories. 

What do you currently do full time and how does it tie into your User Group priorities? 

I work as an IT Infrastructure Project Manager and a technical educator. Many of the projects I manage involve deploying virtualization technology and so there is a direct relationship between what I learn in the VMUG setting and the rest of my professional life. The VMUG allows me to interact with vendors supplying information about their latest technology offerings and so I am aware and in a position to recommend relevant products for evaluation. We strive to bring high value, practical content to the PAVMUG meetings and that brings benefits in two ways. Attendees can put to use what they learn and vendors can highlight the costs and benefits of their technology offerings so that businesses can evaluate their applicability 

What are your thoughts about Microsoft Hyper V? Are users talking about it & how much interest is there in management of a multi-hypervisor environment? 

The success of your solution will, in part, depend on your ability to effectively manage it. Obviously, I’m a bit of a partisan when it comes to hypervisors. However, with that said, requirements differ based on the environment that is in place or planned. There is definitely a place for Hyper V and Zen. An organization that is Microsoft centric should seriously consider the cost benefit of deploying Hyper V. In a large, multi-platform environment, multi-hypervisor management would seem to be a critical requirement. 

What is the most common complaint that you hear from end users? From vendors? 

The concerns from end users center around cost and complexity of the solution, vendors are more concerned about projected spend for infrastructure and the overall impact of IT budgets. Even if a solution could result in cost avoidance, the funding for the investment may not be there. 

What are the advantages vs. the disadvantages of being associated with VMware and running a user’s group? 

We’ve been very fortunate to have a VMware team that fully supports our VMUG. VMware System Engineers and Sales reps attend our meetings and events and they provide great presentations and support. We have an ASK VMware session at every meeting so that members can ask questions directly to the VMware representatives in an open forum. We have found this to be a very useful part of our meetings. 

Any thoughts on a live video feed of the User Group presentations? 

We’ve thought about podcasts, webinars/webcasts and video conferencing and while it could increase access it may also bring issues such as (1) incremental cost since we would continue to pay for the brick and mortar access (2) availability of equipment and technical support expertise (3) affect on the on-site attendance especially if it resulted in a decrease in member interaction. 

Having access to the meeting content would provide a great resource for a wider audience (including other VMUGs). However, what would the impact be to the VMUG and its emphasis on face-to-face networking and interaction? Would fewer people attend the meetings? What affect would that have on Q&A sessions? Isn’t part of the benefit of the VMUG to meet new people and to share information? 

When, if at all do you think it would be appropriate to start charging users? 

The VMUG is set up as a not-for-profit organization and is supported via vendor sponsorship (or sponsorship via member organizations). My understanding is that VMware VMUG policy prohibits charging VMUG members for attending meetings, hence, our need as VMUG leaders, to solicit sponsorship support. 

What were the 3 top technologies or topics that users were interested about this year? 

Cloud computing (vSphere), Desktop Virtualization, Performance Monitoring, and VM Management 

During the downtime between User Groups, where can people go to get updated information on the next event? 

PAVMUG posts meeting announcements on the PAVMUG Forum (part of the VMware website). As soon as the agenda is fixed, meeting announcements and all presentations from PAVMUG meetings are also posted there. Members who could not attend the meeting can view the presentations on the PAVMUG Forum. There is also a LinkedIn PAVMUG group for discussion forums and announcements.

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Related Links:
PAVMUG Forum, contact Ray Brady