We’re back with a recap episode from VMUG Connect Minneapolis, and this one is all about what actually matters on the ground. Joined by Brad Tompkins, we break down key takeaways from the event, from rising hardware and memory costs to the real conversations happening between practitioners navigating security challenges and evolving infrastructure decisions. What stood out most? The connection. Unlike massive conferences, VMUG Connect brings together a smaller, highly engaged community where rea...
Apr 09, 2026•8 min•Ep. 582
In this episode, Pete Flecha and John Nicholson sat down with Dilpreet Bindra to break down some of the key announcements from KubeCon and what they mean for platform teams, Kubernetes operators, and the broader cloud native community. The conversation covered Broadcom’s continued investment in upstream Kubernetes, including the contribution of Velero to the CNCF as a sandbox project, and why that matters for disaster recovery and migration strategies. They also explored how projects like Cluste...
Apr 06, 2026•16 min•Ep. 581
KubeCon 2026 is underway, and in this episode of Virtually Speaking, Pete Fletcher and Jad Elzein sit down with Himanshu Singh to break down some of the biggest announcements coming out of the show. We cover Broadcom’s contribution of Project Valero to the CNCF Sandbox and why that matters for the future of Kubernetes backup, disaster recovery, and migration. The conversation also explores what it means to deepen VMware’s long standing commitment to the Kubernetes and CNCF community, and why com...
Mar 28, 2026•12 min•Ep. 580
KubeCon 2026 is officially underway, and we’re kicking things off in one of the most unique ways we’ve ever done - recording from a boat in the canals of Amsterdam 🇳🇱 In this kickoff episode of our Virtually Speaking KubeCon series, Pete, John, and Jad set the stage for the week ahead. From Platform Engineering Day to AI, GPUs, and Kubernetes at scale, there’s no shortage of innovation, learning, and community to dive into. We talk about what we’re most excited for, the energy around the event...
Mar 28, 2026•3 min•Ep. 579
Artificial Intelligence is dominating every conversation in tech right now, but how much of it is real progress and how much is hype? In this episode of the Virtually Speaking Podcast, we sit down with industry analyst and cloud expert Dave Linthicum to take an honest look at the current state of AI adoption in the enterprise. From failed AI pilots and unrealistic expectations to the infrastructure, cost, and governance challenges that many organizations underestimate, Dave shares why so many AI...
Mar 17, 2026•35 min•Ep. 578
Get ready for KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe 2026 in Amsterdam with this special preview episode of the Virtually Speaking Podcast. Pete Flecha, John Nicholson, Jad El-Zein, and Himanshu Singh break down what to expect from the event, why Broadcom’s presence at KubeCon matters, and how Kubernetes, platform engineering, open source, and AI are continuing to shape the future of infrastructure. In this episode, we discuss: What to expect from KubeCon 2026 in Amsterdam Broadcom’s presence at booth ...
Mar 10, 2026•37 min•Ep. 577
Identity is the new security perimeter. In this episode of the Virtually Speaking Podcast, Pete Flecha and John Nicholson are joined by Lee Howard, Head of IAM Product Management at Broadcom, to break down Identity Security for VMware Cloud Foundation and why IAM, PAM, and zero trust access are critical for modern private cloud environments. As part of our VCF Advanced Services Series, this episode explores how identity security has evolved from simple Active Directory authentication and sticky-...
Mar 03, 2026•27 min•Ep. 576
Security has changed. It is no longer enough to focus on the perimeter and hope attackers never get inside. Modern threats are designed to move laterally through the environment using common protocols and predictable patterns. That is why security today is less about protecting everything and more about stopping attackers where they move. In this episode of the Virtually Speaking Podcast, Pete Flecha and John Nicholson are joined by Jad El-Zein and security expert Chris McCain to talk about VMwa...
Feb 23, 2026•48 min•Ep. 575
Load balancing has been around for decades, but the way applications are built and delivered today has changed the problem entirely. It is no longer just about speeds and feeds. It is about operational scale, automation, and the ability to support modern apps across private clouds, public clouds, and Kubernetes. In this episode of the Virtually Speaking Podcast, Pete Flecha and John Nicholson are joined by Jad El-Zein and load balancing expert Nathan McMahon to talk about VMware Avi Load Balance...
Feb 17, 2026•32 min•Ep. 574
In this episode of the Virtually Speaking Podcast, Pete Flecha and John Nicholson continue the Advanced Services series with a deep dive into Network Observability. Joined by Broadcom’s Alec Pinkham, the conversation explores how traditional, reactive network monitoring falls short in modern hybrid and cloud-connected environments. The team discusses how network observability combines passive monitoring with active, synthetic traffic testing to provide true end-to-end visibility—from the end-use...
Feb 13, 2026•26 min•Ep. 573
In this episode of the Virtually Speaking Advanced Services Series, we take a closer look at Automic Automation and how it helps organizations automate the business processes that run across their private cloud environments. John Nicholson and I are joined by Dave Kellermanns from Broadcom’s Agile Operations division to talk about where Automic fits, the kinds of workflows customers are automating today, and why the biggest automation wins often come from small, repetitive tasks. Rather than foc...
Feb 10, 2026•34 min•Ep. 572
In this episode of the Virtually Speaking Podcast Advanced Services Series, we dive into VMware Data Services Manager (DSM) and how it delivers true Database-as-a-Service (DBaaS) capabilities for the private cloud. Pete Flecha and co-host Jad El-Zein are joined by Michael Gandy, Product Manager for DSM, to explore how organizations can simplify the deployment and lifecycle management of modern open-source databases like PostgreSQL and MySQL. With databases representing up to 30% of enterprise wo...
Feb 10, 2026•46 min•Ep. 571
In this episode of Virtually Speaking, hosts Pete Flecha and John Nicholson continue their Advanced Services series with a deep dive into VMware Advanced Cyber Compliance (ACC)—now generally available for VMware Cloud Foundation customers. Joined by Belu De Arbelaiz and Adam Hawley from VMware’s product management team, the conversation explores why cyber compliance and resilience have become mission-critical, and how ACC helps organizations move beyond manual, point-in-time audits to continuous...
Feb 02, 2026•27 min•Ep. 570
VMware Cloud Foundation Advanced Services are often misunderstood — or overlooked entirely. In this episode of Virtually Speaking, we kick off a new series focused on how VCF Advanced Services extend the platform beyond core infrastructure to address real-world challenges in cyber resilience, security, application delivery, data services, and operations. Rick Walsworth joins the show to provide a high-level overview of how VCF Advanced Services help customers address real-world challenges such a...
Jan 29, 2026•28 min•Ep. 569
In this episode of the Virtually Speaking Podcast, hosts Pete Flecha and John Nicholson welcome Vincent Riccio, VMware automation expert, for a deep dive into SaltStack automation and its role inside VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) Advanced Services. Vincent explains how SaltStack, delivered through VMware’s Advanced Cyber Compliance (ACC) service, brings powerful configuration management, state enforcement, and automated remediation to modern private cloud environments. We explore how SaltStack c...
Jan 26, 2026•32 min•Ep. 568
This episode of the Virtually Speaking Podcast features hosts Pete Flecha and John Nicholson joined by returning guest Pete Koehler for a deep dive into vSAN and the evolving conversation around application versus infrastructure high availability. Pete Koehler highlights recent updates to vSAN Ready Nodes that significantly reduce hardware requirements, including up to 67% less RAM and 50% fewer CPU cores for vSAN storage cluster hosts—bringing notable cost and efficiency benefits. From there, t...
Dec 03, 2025•35 min•Ep. 567
The Virtually Speaking Podcast heads to VMware Explore 2025, where Pete Flecha and John Nicholson sit down with Dale Hassinger, winner of this year’s VMware Explore Hackathon. Dale shares the story behind his team’s winning project: a Model Contextual Protocol (MCP) server built in PowerShell that connects to VMware products and leverages AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude to automatically generate dashboards and reports. With AI doing most of the coding, their solution can transform VMware enviro...
Sep 26, 2025•11 min•Ep. 566
At VMware Explore 2025, hosts Pete Flecha and Dave Linthicum sat down with Paul Lembo, CTO for Strategic Americas at Broadcom, to capture the energy and insights from the event. Paul reflects on conversations with customers, partners, and integrators, highlighting how VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) is building trust by delivering on promises made the previous year. One of the biggest crowd-pleasers was the free certification opportunities, where attendees who passed walked away with custom VCF sn...
Sep 25, 2025•13 min•Ep. 565
At VMware Explore 2025, Pete Flecha and John Nicholson sit down with Chandra Prathuri, Product Management, VMware Cloud Foundation Division at Broadcom, to dive into the automation capabilities of VMware Cloud Foundation 9.0 The conversation kicks off with an analogy of turtles and tunnels, pointing out how slow and fragmented traditional IT operations can feel. Chandra explains how VCF 9 is designed to eliminate those bottlenecks by giving admins AWS-like self-service experiences on-premises—wi...
Sep 24, 2025•12 min•Ep. 564
At VMware Explore 2025 (Day Three), hosts Pete Flecha and John Nicholson sit down with Raj Bhat from AMD and Dave Morera from Broadcom to discuss a major announcement: VMware’s support for AMD Instinct MI350 GPUs for Private AI workloads. Raj dives into the specs of the MI350—288GB of memory and nearly 20 petaflops of performance, packaged in a UBB form factor with eight GPUs connected together—making it ideal for running large AI models. Dave explains how this partnership expands customer hardw...
Sep 23, 2025•16 min•Ep. 563
The Virtually Speaking Podcast is back from VMware Explore 2025 with an inspiring conversation featuring Nick Kuhn. Hosts Pete Flecha and John Nicholson dive into Nick’s incredible home lab journey—from starting with a single HPZ 440 workstation to building a massive 16-host environment capable of running large language models. Nick shares how his passion for vSAN sparked the growth of his lab, how winning first place at the 2023 Explore Hackathon with an AI project fueled his expansion, and why...
Sep 23, 2025•15 min•Ep. 562
On day three of VMware Explore 2025, Pete Flecha and John Nicholson sit down with Drew Nielsen to explore the economic value of VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF). Drew explains how customer sentiment has shifted since last year—organizations have moved past the “five stages of grief” around perpetual licensing and are now fully embracing VCF. He highlights how VCF 9 with memory tiering delivers measurable savings: ~40% less costly than public cloud ~50% less costly than building a traditional three-...
Sep 19, 2025•9 min•Ep. 561
In this episode of the Virtually Speaking Podcast, hosts Pete Flecha and John Nicholson sit down with Nick Kuhn from VMware Tanzu during VMware Explore 2025. Nick—who also hosts Cloud Foundry Weekly—breaks down what Tanzu is today following VMware’s recent organizational changes under Broadcom. He explains how Kubernetes components (now called VMware Kubernetes Service, or VKS) have shifted to the VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) division, while Tanzu now focuses on Platform as a Service (PaaS) tec...
Sep 18, 2025•17 min•Ep. 560
In this episode of the Virtually Speaking Podcast, hosts Pete Flecha and John Nicholson sit down with Jad El-Zein, technologist at Broadcom, live from VMware Explore 2025. Jad, who recently returned to the VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) team after his time with the Tanzu Business Unit, shares his perspective on application modernization and how VCF 9.0 delivers a complete private cloud platform for today’s workloads. He explains why “modern apps” shouldn’t be limited to just Kubernetes or contain...
Sep 18, 2025•23 min•Ep. 559
In this episode of the Virtually Speaking Podcast from VMware Explore 2025, Pete Flecha and John Nicholson sit down with vSAN expert Pete Koehler to dig into the latest advancements in vSAN technology. The conversation explores how vSAN design and operations have evolved, with networking now taking center stage over disk configurations as the platform moves fully to all-NVMe and ESA architecture. Pete Koehler shares insights on how VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) operations integrate with vSAN, hi...
Sep 17, 2025•15 min•Ep. 558
In this episode of the Virtually Speaking Podcast, hosts Pete Flecha and John Nicholson talk with Drew Nielsen from Broadcom about the major changes to VMware’s certification program following the Broadcom acquisition. Drew breaks down how VMware has streamlined certifications from five tracks into three clear, role-specific paths for: 🔹 Implementers & Admins 🔹 Architects 🔹 Support Professionals Key updates include: ✔️ Standardized exam pricing at $250 ✔️ No required training before takin...
Sep 16, 2025•8 min•Ep. 557
In this VMware Explore 2025 edition of the Virtually Speaking Podcast, hosts Pete Flecha and John Nicholson talk with Raj Reddi from the United States Senate Federal Credit Union (USSFCU) and Alexis Colon, Sr. Solutions Architect at Broadcom. Raj shares how USSFCU—serving a sensitive membership that includes Senate and Supreme Court communities—successfully upgraded from VCF 5.2 to VCF 9 with minimal downtime, despite having a lean IT team of just 22 people. Key highlights include: 🔹 How Privat...
Sep 16, 2025•17 min•Ep. 556
In this episode of the Virtually Speaking Podcast, recorded at VMware Explore 2025, hosts Pete Flecha and John Nicholson sit down with Vijay Ramachandran, VP of Products for Core Infrastructure at Broadcom. Vijay shares the latest innovations in VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) that are reshaping core infrastructure: 🔹 Memory Tiering – a technical feature that’s seeing surprisingly high customer engagement 🔹 vSAN Global Deduplication – cluster-wide dedupe for better efficiency and cost savings 🔹...
Sep 16, 2025•11 min•Ep. 555
At VMware Explore 2025, hosts Pete Flecha and John Nicholson sit down with Himanshu Singh to unpack one of the biggest announcements: Private AI is now natively built into VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF 9.0). With this shift, customers no longer need an add-on service—all Private AI capabilities are included as part of VCF entitlement, making AI more accessible and integrated than ever. Key highlights from the conversation: 🔹 AI-Native VCF – Private AI becomes part of the core platform for every ...
Sep 15, 2025•10 min•Ep. 554
In this episode of the Virtually Speaking Podcast, recorded at VMware Explore 2025, hosts Pete Flecha and John Nicholson sit down with Michael Miller, IT Systems Architect at Mary Washington Healthcare. Mike shares his inspiring career journey from working the midnight help desk shift to leading IT architecture at a healthcare organization where uptime isn’t just about business continuity—it’s about saving lives. He walks through Mary Washington Healthcare’s modernization journey: 🔹 Transitioni...
Sep 15, 2025•12 min•Ep. 553
