I've just returned from an enlightening morning at the ModernDay Explorer keynote, and let me tell you, it was an experience filled with insights and inspiration. 🚀

The stage was graced by remarkable speakers who left us in awe. First up was Sarah Cruddas, a space journalist whose talk delved into her thrilling adventures in the space sector. She shared how exploration in space technology is making our world a better place. What's intriguing is how she connected this to our own tech realm. We've been more engrossed in cyberspace than outer space, and yet, our work in the tech sector is instrumental in advancing space exploration. It's a testament to the synergy between these two worlds.

Next in line was Alistair Humphreys, famous for cycling around the world—over 40,000 miles! But his message wasn't about epic journeys; it was about that crucial first step. You don't need to cycle around the globe to find the explorer within you. It's all about taking that initial, often challenging, doorstep mile. Venture slightly out of your comfort zone, embark on a little adventure, and you'll discover the explorer spirit right where you are. Whether it's climbing a tree every Tuesday or taking a stroll around the M25 in London, small adventures can ignite your inner explorer.

And then, we were graced by the presence of Dee Caffari, who has sailed around the world a mind-blowing six times! She emphasised the importance of finding your "why" in exploration. For her, it was studying microplastics in the ocean. Her purpose fuelled her journey.

These diverse speakers shared their remarkable journeys, but they also brought it back to a level we can all relate to. How can you find the explorer within yourself? It doesn't have to be a grand expedition; it just needs to have a purpose. The key is to step away from the routine and seek your next adventure.

So, after this engaging session, I'm all fired up to encourage you to find your next exploration. It doesn't need to be monumental; it just needs to be purposeful. Who knows, you might spot me up a tree next Tuesday!

Today was the first day of VMware Explore 2022. The event was kicked off with a general session which is always a great opportunity to learn more about VMware’s vision, key announcements and new technology.

The session was kicked off with VMware’s CEO, Raghu Raghuram. Raghu’s key message of the session was focused on shifting focus from a ‘cloud first’ approach to a ‘cloud smart’ approach. VMware found that many with a cloud first approach actually didn’t achieve what they wanted to as effectively or efficiently as they would like. This ineffective cloud first approach has now led to cloud chaos!

Raghuram believes companies that adopt a cloud smart approach can move from disparate teams to a consistent cloud strategy, providing better experiences and a more secure strategy.

The keynote moved quickly with lots of content and announcements from a number of great speakers. Some of the key messages and announcements were:

• How we need to innovate to reduce energy costs and ultimately help ourselves in the future

• vSAN 8 & vSphere 8 are Generally Available (GA) as of today

• That VMware Cross Cloud services give you consistent experiences across any cloud and we need to accept that it is inevitable that businesses will use multiple clouds, not just one.

• Flexible working is here to stay and 75% of organisations recognise the Digital Employee Experience needs to be a top priority

• That organisations need not only to try and prevent Ransomware attacks but have the right tools in place to recover from an attack. An attack happens every 11 seconds, so you need to be able to recover to a good point as quickly as possible. VMware Ransomware Recovery can help.

• And there were some great customer stories from Mclaren and Llyods Banking about how VMware have allowed them to innovate and improve their experiences

Following the general session, I attended an influencer & press panel session with a number of VMware execs, hosted by Joe Baguley. It was great to hear a little more about the company’s vision and get some real detailed answers about various areas of the organisation, building upon what we heard in the general session.

There were great questions and discussions about the Broadcom acquisition, reducing carbon footprint, security and more and it was great to get these insights from the exec’s first hand.

After some lunch and a catch-up with the community, I joined the EUC solutions keynote hosted by Shankar Iyer. The key message from this session was focused on how work has fundamentally changed, and we need to adapt to ensure that the employee experience is consistent and personalised to enable employees to work effectively.

Shankar discussed how organisations also need to bring together experience and security and make sure they are balanced. Many don’t get this balance right and it can either put too much emphasis on security, negatively impacting the experience, or prioritising experience over security and putting your business at risk.
A big focus of session was about automation and how with automated tools and processes, we are able to do more with less. There were some great customer stories and demonstrations that discussed and showed how these organisations are using automation to improve experiences without impacting security.

Lastly, Shawn Bass was on stage demonstrating and discussing some of the Workspace ONE technologies and the autonomous workspace in action. This was a great insight into how this technology can work and actually see some real benefit it can bring organisations.

Whilst my brain was full of content and I was busy digesting all that I had already heard throughout the day, I took a lap around the solutions exchange to learn more about what is happening in the industry. Tomorrow, I want to spend longer in the solutions exchange to learn more about how these VMware partners are enabling businesses and improving experiences, whether that is related to cloud, employee experiences or security.

I am already excited for another day of exploring tomorrow!

Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @BizTechMeg to keep up with my live snapshots, short vlogs and more throughout the event!