Today after the Keynote we descended to level -1 of the Palais des Festivals, better known as the VMware Solution Exchange. We knew that this was not a good idea as this is the level you will never leave. The Solution Exchange is a large exposition with over 100 VMware technology partners, from AMD to Xsigo and from BT to Veeam. Even the competition is welcome as Microsoft and Citrix have their own booth.

We saw many interesting products and did an interview with Rob Bloemendal from Dell EqualLogic which we will post tommorow. Rob will counter some of the default iSCSI comments like fiber channel is faster than iSCSI and iSCSI latency problems (?). A very interesting interview which you must see.

We also spend a couple of minutes at theVeeam booth. People sometime think of back-up like magic. The magician at the booth, Robert Strong, really made an impression. Check out the video about his math wizardry later.

It also was very pleasant to meet up with Dennis Harding again. Dennis was the trainer during our DSA training. Dennis,  I agree, 23 skiddoo :-)

We also went to the VMTN meet and greet. We met all the well know bloggers like Duncan Epping, Gabrie van Zanten, Eric Sloof and Scott Herold. We even shook hands with Scott to keep the peace in the VMGuru family.

The Solution Exchange is a great opportunity for networking. Edwin met the guys from EMC at the Solution Exchange and could drop a problem he was working on with a customer for five weeks.

If you are in Cannes, you definately should reserve some time for the Solution Exchange.