We had a great turnout at this years VMUG USERCON event. I am excited to see this event continue to grow. Due to changes in the industry we were down 10 sponsors but since we had the same turnout from the prior year it didn't feel like it.

We had a great kickoff with breakfast and Scott Lowe from VMware who gave an update on VMworld 2016. 

Our keynote speaker this year was Kyle Ruddy from VMware who spoke on vSphere Modern Developers & Automation Interfaces. Automation with vRealize and Containers are two of the largest movements in the industry right now and Kyle did an excellent job covering these topics.

We introduced using a panel this year for VDI and IoT. We received some great questions and had great involvement from everyone. 

For the breakout sessions this year we had speakers talking about the following:

• Securing Ahead of the Speed of Business with NSX and vRealize Network Insight - VMware Management Team
• Making Datacenter Infrastructure Invisible: Demystifying Hyperconvergence and the Cloud - Nutanix
  
• Mitigating Modern Threats in a Software Defined Datacenter - Check Point Software Technologies
  
• Secure End-User Computing - SMP
  
• Embracing Consumerization: Building The Digital Workspace for the Mobile-Cloud Era Thru Workspace One - VMware
  
• Protecting Your vSphere Environment with vCloud Air - Disaster Recovery - VMware
  
• The Practical Path Using VMware NSX - VMware
  
• VMware Cloud Foundation: A Technical Deep Dive - Sirius Computer Solutions
  
• 18 Things NOT To Do With Your vSphere Backups - Veeam Software
  
• Converged Platforms, Building Blocks for the Modern Data Center - Dell EMC
  
• Evolving Your BC/DR Strategy for an Always On Business - Zerto
  
• Disruptive Innovations - Rolta AdvizeX
  
• The Technical and Business Values of VM-aware Storage - Tintri
  
• Virtual SAN 6.2 Technical What's New - VMware
  
• vSphere API and CLI Deep-Dive - VMware
  
• vRA + NSX Technical Deep-Dive - VMware
  

We have an exciting lineup for this years VMUG USERCON in Rochester, NY. This years keynote speaker is Kyle Ruddy from VMware joined by Scott Lowe.

There are some great updates from VMworld 2016 along with tracks on Networking & Security, Hybrid Cloud, Emerging Technologies, EUC, Storage & Availability, Data Center Management and of course vSphere.