Unexplored Territory

SummaryChris Gully discusses his current role in the new Broadcom organization and highlights of his career. He emphasizes the importance of staying relevant in the technology industry and the value of working with cool and smart people. The conversation then shifts to the topic of small language models (SLMs) and their role in the landscape of gen AI applications. Gully explains that SLMs offer a more progressive approach to working with large language models (LLMs) and enable more efficient and scalable deployments. The discussion also touches on the components of gen AI applications, the need for right-sizing models, and the challenges of scalability and efficiency. Gully highlights the importance of data and its role in driving business outcomes through AI. The conversation concludes with a discussion on the benefits and limitations of fine-tuning LLMs and the potential future of SLMs. The conversation explores the concept of SLMs (Small Language Models) and their role in AI development. It discusses the advantages of SLMs over LLMs (Large Language Models) regarding efficiency, optimization, and governance. The conversation also touches on the challenges of infrastructure management and resource allocation in AI deployments. It highlights the importance of right-sizing workloads, distributing workloads across data centers, and maximizing resource utilization. The conversation concludes with a discussion on the future trends in machine learning and AI, including advancements in math and the need for accessible and efficient technology.LinksVMware's Approach to Private AIMicrosoft Phi-2 - The surprising power of small language modelsMixtralMixtral on HuggingFaceTakeawaysStaying relevant in the technology industry is crucial for career success.Small language models (SLMs) offer a more efficient and scalable approach to working with large language models (LLMs).Data is the most important and untapped asset for organizations, and leveraging it through AI can drive business outcomes.Scalability and efficiency are key challenges in deploying gen AI applications.Fine-tuning LLMs can enhance their precision and reduce the need for extensive training.The future of SLMs may involve dynamic training and efficient distribution to support evolving business needs. SLMs offer advantages in terms of efficiency, optimization, and governance compared to LLMs.Infrastructure management and resource allocation are crucial in AI deployments.Right-sizing workloads and maximizing resource utilization are key considerations.Future trends in machine learning and AI include advancements in math and the need for accessible and efficient technology.Follow us on X for updates and news about upcoming episodes: https://x.com/UnexploredPod.Last but not least, make sure to hit that subscribe button and share the episode with your friends and colleagues!Disclaimer: The thoughts and opinions shared in this podcast are our own/guest(s), and not necessarily those of Broadcom or VMware by Broadcom.

In this new episode of the Unexplored Territory Podcast, DaShaun Carter, a Spring Developer Advocate at VMware Tanzu and Broadcom, discusses his career highlights, his home lab setup, and his passion for Spring. He explains the concept of developer experience and how Spring and Tanzu contribute to it. DaShaun also highlights the innovations in Spring, such as AOT processing and native images, and their impact on use cases. He discusses the relationship between the open source aspect of Spring and the closed source solutions in the Tanzu portfolio. Finally, he explores the importance of developer experience in platform engineering. In this conversation, DaShaun and Johan discuss the importance of collaboration between developers and platform engineers, the value of Spring for platform engineers, the role of AI in developer experience and Spring, interesting topics for the VMware Explore conference, and where to learn more about Spring and open source.TakeawaysSpring and Tanzu provide an easy and efficient developer experience, allowing developers to focus on solving problems and delivering software.Innovations in Spring, such as AOT processing and native images, enable the deployment of enterprise-grade workloads on low-cost devices and at scale.The open source aspect of Spring allows flexibility and choice for customers, while the commercial solutions in the Tanzu portfolio provide additional support and 24/7 access to experts.Developer experience plays a crucial role in platform engineering, as it attracts developers to the platform and enables efficient onboarding and deployment processes. Collaboration between developers and platform engineers is crucial for successful software delivery.Platform teams should build relationships with developers and continuously iterate on meeting their needs.Spring provides enterprise-grade, production-ready tools and frameworks that make the life of platform engineers easier.AI is becoming increasingly important in the developer experience, and Spring AI provides an abstraction layer for consuming AI models.Interesting topics for the VMware Explorer conference include overcoming obstacles in software delivery, cost-saving solutions, and success stories.To learn more about Spring and open source, connect with DaShaun on X, YouTube, and LinkedIn, and check out the Spring Office Hours show.Follow us on X for updates and news about upcoming episodes: https://x.com/UnexploredPod.Last but not least, make sure to hit that subscribe button and share the episode with your friends and colleagues!Disclaimer: The thoughts and opinions shared in this podcast are our own/guest(s), and not necessarily those of Broadcom or VMware by Broadcom.

In episode 070, we spoke with Patryk Wolsza about vSAN performance. Patryk wrote some great whitepapers on the topic of vSAN OSA vs ESA, vSAN on AMD vs vSAN on Intel, and vSAN with RDMA and 100GbE. In this episode, we discuss the benefits of ESA, Intel CPUs, and RDMA/100GbE.Some links to topics discussed:vSAN and RDMA/100GbEHow Server Consolidation with VMware vSAN 8 Boosts Performance by more than 7.4x!VMware vSAN and 4th Gen Intel® Xeon® Scalable Processors Outpace AMD GenoaBoost Performance and Lower Latency with VMware vSAN 8 and 4th Gen Intel® Xeon® Scalable Processors — Solution Design BriefSystem Health Inspector ToolFollow us on X for updates and news about upcoming episodes: https://x.com/UnexploredPod.Last but not least, make sure to hit that subscribe button and share the episode with your friends and colleagues!Disclaimer: The thoughts and opinions shared in this podcast are our own/guest(s), and not necessarily those of Broadcom or VMware by Broadcom.

In episode 69, we spoke with Earl Ruby on running AI and ML workloads on CPUs. Earl is an R&D engineer at VMware by Broadcom focusing on AI/ML accelerators. He provides us with an overview of the do's and don't of successful deployments of AI-enabled applications on CPUs.Some links to topics discussed:earlruby.org/AI without GPUs: Accessing Sapphire Rapids AMX instructions on vSphereEarl Ruby on LinkedinFollow us on X for updates and news about upcoming episodes: https://x.com/UnexploredPod.Last but not least, make sure to hit that subscribe button and share the episode with your friends and colleagues!Disclaimer: The thoughts and opinions shared in this podcast are our own/guest(s), and not necessarily those of Broadcom or VMware by Broadcom.

In episode 067, we invited Niels Hagoort back to the show to talk about the latest VMC on AWS announcements.Topics we discussed:The new M7i instance, including its use cases and specsThe Cloud Management Add-on for VMC on AWS and how Aria can add valueThe differences between the M7i instance and the other instance types, and the deployment considerations.More about these announcements can be found here:https://vmc.techzone.vmware.com/closer-look-m7i-instance-vmware-cloud-awsFollow us on X for updates and news about upcoming episodes: https://x.com/UnexploredPod.Last but not least, make sure to hit that subscribe button and share the episode with your friends and colleagues!Disclaimer: The thoughts and opinions shared in this podcast are our own/guest(s), and not necessarily those of Broadcom or VMware by Broadcom.

In episode 067, we spoke with Jerry Rijnbeek on the topic of Rubrik, and how Rubrik enables customers to secure their data against natural disasters as well as ransomware, but more importantly, also helps customers to develop a data security posture.Follow us on X for updates and news about upcoming episodes: https://x.com/UnexploredPod.Last but not least, make sure to hit that subscribe button and share the episode with your friends and colleagues!Disclaimer: The thoughts and opinions shared in this podcast are our own/guest(s), and not necessarily those of Broadcom or VMware by Broadcom.

In episode 66, we spoke with Vaughn Stewart on data platforms for AI and ML workloads. Vaughn is the VP of Systems Engineering at VAST Data. He provides us with an overview of the needs and requirements of a data platform for successful deployments of AI-enabled applications.Some links to topics discussed:VAST Data PlatformVAST Data DASE architecture VAST DatabaseVAST Data Similarity-Based Data ReductionFollow us on X for updates and news about upcoming episodes: https://x.com/UnexploredPod.Last but not least, make sure to hit that subscribe button and share the episode with your friends and colleagues!Disclaimer: The thoughts and opinions shared in this podcast are our own/guest(s), and not necessarily those of Broadcom or VMware by Broadcom.

In episode 65 we spoke with Jatin Purohit on the topic of Oracle Cloud VMware Solution. Jatin is the Senior Technical Marketing Architect at VMware by Broadcom for this solution and provides us an overview of what the benefits are of the solution and what was introduced since episode 23 where we discussed OCVS with Richard Garsthagen.Some links to topics discussed:Jatin's Explore session - https://www.vmware.com/explore/video-library/video-landing.html?sessionid=1682515883297001PzAV&videoId=6335501226112Multi-cluster support - https://blogs.oracle.com/cloud-infrastructure/post/multiple-clusters-oracle-cloud-vmware-solutionMixed shape support - https://blogs.oracle.com/cloud-infrastructure/post/mixedshape-clusters-oracle-cloud-vmware-solution OCVI Differentiator - https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7077357098296098816/?originTrackingId=KxcPND5pS4KQLIg8chl2hA%3D%3DFollow us on X for updates and news about upcoming episodes: https://x.com/UnexploredPod.Last but not least, make sure to hit that subscribe button and share the episode with your friends and colleagues!Disclaimer: The thoughts and opinions shared in this podcast are our own/guest(s), and not necessarily those of Broadcom or VMware by Broadcom.

In this final episode of the year, Frank and Johan have a conversation with William Lam about home labs and how to run AI workloads on them. We discuss the different hardware options and go through some of the content that William has created. You can find William's blog articles here:Blog about GPUs & TanzuBlog about Private ChatGPTThe NVIDIA Deep Learning Institute online learning platformFollow us on X/Twitter for updates and news about upcoming episodes: https://x.com/UnexploredPod.Last but not least, make sure to hit that subscribe button and share the episode with your friends and colleagues!Disclaimer: The thoughts and opinions shared in this podcast are our own/guest(s), and not necessarily those of Broadcom or VMware by Broadcom.

VMware EUC continues to innovate, with a lot of announcements being done at VMware Explore in Barcelona. In this episode, Johan had a conversation with Spencer Pitts, Chief Technologist Digital Workspace at VMware, to dive into the major announcements and explain what the new features entail and what the added value is. The following features have been covered:Next-gen macOS managementFreestyle Orchestrator supportUpdates dashboardHub HealthSecurity BaselinesDeclarative ManagementVulnerability management below OSIntel Chip to CloudApp VolumesDEEM IntegrationSupport for Persistent virtual desktopsApps on demand support for AVD RemoteApp streaming and AWS AppStream 2.0 is now GA HorizonActive VDI Agent & Active VDI Client TechnologyAria Operations Experience Telemetry integrationWorkspace ONEZoom API IntegrationApplication license optimizationGenAI ingration for Sensor CreationThe following articles were mentioned as well:Blog from Marshall Ann BusbeeBlog with Anywhere Workspace announcementsFollow us on X/Twitter for updates and news about upcoming episodes: https://x.com/UnexploredPod.Last but not least, make sure to hit that subscribe button and share the episode with your friends and colleagues!Disclaimer: The thoughts and opinions shared in this podcast are our own/guest(s), and not necessarily those of Broadcom or VMware by Broadcom.

In this episode, Frank has a conversation with Chris Wolf about Private AU and how Private AI Foundation can help accelerate organizations to develop their Gen-AI-enabled application efficiently and securely. We discuss foundation models, infrastructure requirements, and future developments. Chris mentioned the following resources during this episode:VMware Private AI Foundation Reference ArchitectureRetrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) Starter kitCode Assistant Starter KitVMware AI Labs Github RepositoryVMware AI Labs homeFollow us on X/Twitter for updates and news about upcoming episodes: https://x.com/UnexploredPod.Last but not least, make sure to hit that subscribe button and share the episode with your friends and colleagues!Disclaimer: The thoughts and opinions shared in this podcast are our own/guest(s), and not necessarily those of Broadcom or VMware by Broadcom.

Recently Dell announced they acquired RVTools. RVTools is one of the most used free tools in the VMware community, created and maintained by a single person, Rob de Veij. In this episode, we discuss with Sam Kirchoff what RVTools is, why Dell acquired it, and how it complements Live Optics, and of course the other way around how Live Optics complements RVTools. Follow us on X/Twitter for updates and news about upcoming episodes: https://x.com/UnexploredPod.Last but not least, make sure to hit that subscribe button and share the episode with your friends and colleagues!Disclaimer: The thoughts and opinions shared in this podcast are our own/guest(s), and not necessarily those of Broadcom or VMware by Broadcom.

In our second episode we had Sazzala on the show to talk about Ransomware Recovery as a Service, and today we invited him back on the show to talk about the Cyber Secure Storage announcement done at VMware Explore. Sazzala explains what Cyber Secure Storage is, discusses the use cases, and goes over some of the implementation details of this new offering which will soon be in private beta. Follow us on X/Twitter for updates and news about upcoming episodes: https://x.com/UnexploredPod.Last but not least, make sure to hit that subscribe button and share the episode with your friends and colleagues!Disclaimer: The thoughts and opinions shared in this podcast are our own/guest(s), and not necessarily those of Broadcom or VMware by Broadcom.

At VMware Explore in Las Vegas VMware announced a new vSAN offering called VMware vSAN Max. To discuss this announcement we invited Kalyan Krishnaswamy to the show. Kalyan is the product manager for VMware vSAN Max and has been involved with vSAN for many years.Follow us on Twitter for updates and news about upcoming episodes: https://twitter.com/UnexploredPod.Last but not least, make sure to hit that subscribe button, rate wherever possible, and share the episode with your friends and colleagues!Disclaimer: The thoughts and opinions shared in this podcast are our own/guest(s), and not necessarily those of Broadcom or VMware by Broadcom.

Recently Pure Storage announced the availability of Cloud Block Store (CBS) for Microsoft Azure VMware Solution (AVS). Duncan invited Cody Hosterman of Pure Storage to talk us through the announcement!Make sure to follow Cody on Twitter: https://twitter.com/codyhosterman. Also, make sure to bookmark his website, https://www.codyhosterman.com/, as he has excellent content on all things vVols, SPBM, CBS, and much more!Follow us on Twitter for updates and news about upcoming episodes: https://twitter.com/UnexploredPod.Last but not least, make sure to hit that subscribe button, rate where ever possible, and share the episode with your friends and colleagues!Disclaimer: The thoughts and opinions shared in this podcast are our own/guest(s), and not necessarily those of Broadcom or VMware by Broadcom.

At this year's VMware Explore in Las Vegas, there were tons of announcements in the End-User Computing or Hybrid Workforce track. In this episode, we are joined by Bharath Rangarajan (VP Products for VMware EUC) to talk about the biggest announcements and what they bring to customers. Technologies we have talked about: DEEM, Freestyle Orchestrator, Workspace ONE, Horizon and Horizon Cloud, App Volumes, Apps on-demand, Amazon Workspaces, Appstream, and Project Oakville. Follow us on Twitter for updates and news about upcoming episodes: https://twitter.com/UnexploredPod.Last but not least, make sure to hit that subscribe button, rate where ever possible, and share the episode with your friends and colleagues!Disclaimer: The thoughts and opinions shared in this podcast are our own/guest(s), and not necessarily those of Broadcom or VMware by Broadcom.

At VMware Explore there were various announcements around vSphere+. Considering vSphere+ is still a relatively new offering we wanted to make sure that we would not only  cover the basics but also got to hear all of the intricate details from an expert like Dave Morera!Make sure to follow Dave on Twitter (https://twitter.com/GreatWhiteTec) to keep up to date with his adventures, and check out the VMware website for more documents, whitepapers, and announcements around vSphere+ here: https://core.vmware.com/vsphere#vsphereFollow us on Twitter for updates and news about upcoming episodes: https://twitter.com/UnexploredPod.Last but not least, make sure to hit that subscribe button, rate where ever possible, and share the episode with your friends and colleagues!Disclaimer: The thoughts and opinions shared in this podcast are our own/guest(s), and not necessarily those of Broadcom or VMware by Broadcom.

Another VMware Explore Conference is in the books. Our hosts were in Las Vegas to present, attend, and enjoy the conference, but also to let you experience some of the buzz that was going on. In a packed episode, we have 6 different guests to talk about the biggest VMware conference in the world:Doug Rickets (Synology) - A conversation about Synology and how they provide solutions for customers with different use cases.Anthony Spiteri - A conversation about the Boston Dynamics Spot and why Veeam brought it to VMware Explore.Raghu Raghuram - A conversation about the event, the general session, and the partnership with NVIDIAAmanda Blevins - A conversation about edge computing and the showcase innovation keynote.Charles Cockshoot - A conversation about edge compute stack and the police car use caseChris Wolf - A conversation about his new role and how it impacted the content that was presented.If you would like to check the sessions that have been mentioned in the interviews, check these:CODEB2757LV - State of Union for VMware Home LabsK2906LV - Technology Innovation ShowcaseVIB2123LV - Leveraging LLMs for Enterprise Use Cases - Are You Ready for ChatGPT?CEIB1101LV - Tech Deep Dive: vSAN 8 ESA - Performance and Resilience Without CompromiseEUSB2527LV - Data Science Deep Dive in Anywhere Workspace, and What AI Means for EUCFollow us on Twitter for updates and news about upcoming episodes: https://twitter.com/UnexploredPod.Last but not least, make sure to hit that subscribe button, rate where ever possible, and share the episode with your friends and colleagues!Disclaimer: The thoughts and opinions shared in this podcast are our own/guest(s), and not necessarily those of Broadcom or VMware by Broadcom.

This is the fourth time we have Pete on the podcast, and of course, we are talking vSAN again. We invited Pete to discuss the vSAN 8.0 U2 announcement. What new features is VMware introducing in vSAN 8.0 U2, and how does it benefit our customers?Make sure to follow Pete on Twitter (https://twitter.com/vmpete) to keep up to date with his adventures, and check out the VMware website for more documents and whitepapers on vSAN 8.0 U2 / ESA / Max: Blog post: Introducing vSAN Max: https://core.vmware.com/blog/introducing-vsan-maxvSAN Max landing page: https://core.vmware.com/vsan-maxvSAN ESA landing page:  https://core.vmware.com/vsan-esaFollow us on Twitter for updates and news about upcoming episodes: https://twitter.com/UnexploredPod.Last but not least, make sure to hit that subscribe button, rate where ever possible, and share the episode with your friends and colleagues!Disclaimer: The thoughts and opinions shared in this podcast are our own/guest(s), and not necessarily those of Broadcom or VMware by Broadcom.

We invited Féidhlim O'Leary back to the show to discuss the vSphere 8.0 Update 2 announcement. What new features is VMware introducing in vSphere 8.0 U2, and how does it benefit our customers? Make sure to visit Techzone, and read up on all the announcements and the enhancements introduced.Follow us on Twitter for updates and news about upcoming episodes: https://twitter.com/UnexploredPod.Last but not least, hit that subscribe button, rate where ever possible, and share the episode with your friends and colleagues!Disclaimer: The thoughts and opinions shared in this podcast are our own/guest(s), and not necessarily those of Broadcom or VMware by Broadcom.