How Much Hype is Too Much for VMworld?
One of the most definining community aspects of virtualization is manifested annually at VMworld. This year in San Francisco, I am particularly intrigued about what is coming. Partly because I am still somewhat surprised and perplexed that vSphere 4.1 was released somewhat close to the upcoming VMworld conferences.
I am perplexed because VMware has historically strived to have the conferences center around a major announcement. Since vSphere 4.1 was recently released, the major announcements will presumably be about "something else." The enticement is definitely enhanced with social media sites such as Twitter. VMware CTO Steve Herrod recently tweeted, "Most announcements I will have ever done in keynote!" Coming into this conference, I don't have any direct information about what the announcements may be, which piques my curiosity.
What value are announcements anyway? In 2008's VMworld, VMware announced and previewed vSphere, yet we patiently held on until May 2009 for the release. An announcement lacks the immediate relevance to most of the virtualization community, but definitely helps shape the future decision process for infrastructure administrators. Larger, more rigid organizations may keep a "minus 1" level of version currency. Others organizations may work aggressively to engage in pilot programs and be on the cutting edge of the technologies. The organizational tech climate truly will vary from customer to customer among the VMworld attendees. What I don't want to do with announcements -- or, more specifically, the anticipation of announcements -- is to build up too high of an expectation.
Make no mistake, I look forward to VMworld more than any other event that I participate in. What will VMworld be for me this year? Hopefully fun, informative and community-rich! Hope to see you there!
Posted by Rick Vanover on 08/10/2010 at 12:47 PM