CTOpinion

A New Column: Introducing Chris Wolf and CTOpinion

The VMware CTO, Americas dishes on all things virtualization.

• By Keith Ward
• 01/27/2016

Long-time readers of Virtualization Review magazine will know the name Chris Wolf, one of our original columnists. And, of course, anyone who's been in virtualization for any amount of time is likely to know Chris from his high profile in the industry. So I'm thrilled to welcome Chris back as an independent contributor and monthly columnist to Virtualization Review.

The column couldn't have a more perfect name: CTOpinion.  Chris is the CTO, Americas at VMware. And he's opinionated. And he can really write. Put it all together, and you have a perfect storm of virtualization knowledge.

Chris's background as a virtualization insider and visionary is impressive. Before joining VMware, he was a Research Vice President for Gartner's Technical Professionals service, focusing on datacenter automation, server virtualization and the cloud (before it was cool). Prior to that, Chris was an analyst at Burton Group, which is when I first met him. I learned a tremendous amount about the industry from chatting with him, in addition to editing his column. He's also worked at CommVault Systems, and wrote one of the foundational books in the virtualization industry: "Virtualization: From the Desktop to the Enterprise" (Apress). In fact, you can still buy it if you want.

Yeah, he knows his stuff.

Now, Chris will be once again sharing his expertise on a monthly basis. CTOpinion will feature, well, any virtualization subject that he wants. He'll cover a wide variety of topics with his usual clear, fresh take. And you can be sure that Chris is not going to just promote VMware products, as if this is merely a marketing channel. Chris knows that you, the reader, will be able to quickly sniff out advertising disguised as useful content.

What Chris will provide is a perspective that comes from being a high-level executive at the most important company in the virtualization industry. He won't typically be breaking down ways to set up High Availability in your corporate datacenter; rather, he'll be offering insight on industry trends and his own unique take on where virtualization is headed.

If you've read any of Chris's work (he has his own blog at VMware) or met him in person (quite possible, since he travels the globe talking to customers about virtualization), you know that he's a straight shooter who doesn't hew to a company line. He tells you what he believes, not what he thinks you want to hear. His unvarnished opinions are what you want, and that's what he'll deliver.