Blog URL:  http://www.vinf.net
Twitter handle: @vinf_net
Current employer: Freelance Infrastructure Architect working in the EMEA consulting team of a major global service provider

How did you get into IT?

Being a Lego nerd as a child architecture and engineering was my main interest as I grew up and I wanted to be a civil engineer designing bridges. I had a passing interest in computers and took a computer science A-level at 16 along with physics and chemistry (oh, and art..!), I quickly picked up Pascal, C and C++ and Assembler and I loved it and spent many hours coding and disassembling other people's code. That, combined with the last economic downturn in the UK laying waste to the engineering and building sector sealed my fate in IT rather than civil engineering.

I achieved both ends of the spectrum in my A-level results (top marks for Computer Science, less said about Art the better ), and in 1995 I went to the University of Brighton to be near the beach, oh.. And study Computer Science 

University was my first exposure to the Internet, having only had limited access to bulletin board systems at home and I immediately got it, I recall being frustrated that I couldn't find reviews or details for my 1st car on-line.. Oh how things have changed! I lived in a shared house with some course mates and we immediately set about building the most ridiculous student home network ever, we had Netware, NT 10Base-2 cabling all over the place and shared dial-up Internet to a local ISP (Mistral), they only realised in later years how much money they lost out on through our local cable co's free local call policy as it was set to auto-redial 24/7

Whilst at university a friend and I went into business providing network services to a local SMB reseller, we did everything from cabling to servers, proxies and email systems for small shops to golf courses and schools, it was long hours but it worked well part-time around my studies, I learnt way more doing this than I ever learnt at university and my experiences in infrastructure and networking was far more fulfilling than coding  although my formal education did give me a good appreciation of documentation and research.

I did a sandwich degree so spent a year working for a reseller/VAR in Brighton, just before I started they were purchased by GE and merged into it's IT services division so I spent a year working on Novell and OS/2 to NT4 migrations for large insurance and retail companies and providing internal 1st/2nd line support for their enterprise network, as part of the prerequisites for the placement they paid for a CBT course and for us to pass at least 3 MCP exams, which I did and continued on to get my MCSE.

When I graduated from university, I went to work for a swiss watch maker in London, providing IT support and doing some IT refresh projects, after a year I was approached about a job with a small managed services company working with EMI music, I was interviewed in the basement of EMI's offices by the founder of Infocom (latterly becoming ioko, and then part of Kit-Digital), the guys were great and offered me the job on the spot, which I accepted and I spent the next 10 years working for what became ioko, initially working on Active Directory and Exchange migration projects for EMI and Diageo.  As the business grew so did my role and I was an early member of our professional services team, doing pre-sales and project delivery mainly in the Microsoft space and latterly virtualization, the company grew into the media/broadcast space and I worked on some great large scale video-on-demand projects as well as traditional IT infrastructure.

Ioko was a great company and I made some excellent friends but after 10 years I was looking for a new challenge, I originally planned to set out on my own as a freelancer but I was offered a job within the cloud practice at VMware,  it sounded like a great role, doing working with early-access customers using vCloud Director and building delivery materials for the field, I met some fantastic people at VMware but eventually came to realise that working for a software vendor in what was evolving back into a project delivery role wasn't for me, I had a number of personal and business projects that I could not carry out whilst working for VMware so I reverted to my original freelance plan, which is what I am still doing today, I enjoy the freedom to work on my own projects and being able to manage my career and personal development more closely.

How did you get into working with VMware and becoming a 2011 vExpert?

I first read about VMware Workstation in a magazine article in 2000, I was instantly hooked and used it to build various complex network and server labs for my studies, I built my own home-brew version of GSX server using Workstation on a Windows 2000 machine using a whole bunch of batch files to copy about VMDK files and start/stop VM, because I was doing so much AD/Exchange migration work it made the most sense as I could build out complex multi-domain environments and test and roll-back infinitely without waiting weeks for people to build out labs, I could turn up with a couple of laptops and have it done by lunchtime.

I got to build my first ESX server around version 2.5 as it was very hard for a non-large reseller to get evaluation versions in the early days. I built a lot of complex test and development environments for customers, ioko had grown into a sizeable managed services provider and I saw an opportunity to build a multi-tenant environment using ESX 3 to deliver customer solutions faster, cheaper and more flexibly; so we ended up building a very early implementation of a cloud.

Since my university days I have always maintained a large and ever-evolving home lab environment, when I found you could virtualise ESX itself I was blown-away, and I spent a lot of my own time and money on the various incarnations of my vTARDIS project (http://vinf.net/vTARDIS).

Whilst at BriForum in Amsterdam in 2007 I decided to start a blog to try and organise my notes a bit better, and it just grew from there. My blog is http://vinf.net which is supposed to stand for V(ritual) Infrastructure (.net) and I am sure someone told me 4-letter domain names were the most memorable so rather than deliberate over names I tried the JFDI approach and here I am, as unpronounceable as it is

About this time I started attending the London VMware User Group On the advice of a colleague and I was impressed at the technical content and approachability of all the attendees, I had expected it all to be a bit stand-offish and awkward, but it was the polar opposite, I think I hold the (dubious) record for presenting at every London VMUG meeting for 2 years straight, if nothing else it encouraged a whole raft of other people to present so they didn't have to listen to me again

In 2011 I joined the steering committee for the London VMUG to assist with finding content and helped organise (and presented at) our 1st ever national UK event, which attracted over 300 attendees. I was awarded the vExpert title in 2009 and 2010 and 2011 and I continue to blog and contribute to LonVMUG and the wider community.

What would you tell someone who wanted to get a job like yours to do?

The most useful people in any industry are those that just get it done, it's very easy to find a reason to complain and say "it can't be done" it's a lot harder, but infinitely more valuable to say "it's tricky, but here is how I would do it, and these are the implications"; the most appropriate solution isn't always the "best" solution.

Nobody can ever know everything about everything, but don't be afraid to say so; you can blag all you want, but it's going to burn you when you fail. The key to being successful if you want a varied and long career is to know a wide breadth of technology, but have the ability (and technical grounding) to learn specific areas quickly, learn from your mistakes and apply that knowledge. VMware have produced some of the most useful technologies to support this sort of activity, it's so easy to spin up some test VMs and just give something a go.

Initiative is the most important attribute, if you are sitting in your chair complaining "my boss won't pay for training on X, thus I can't do it" then you're in trouble. Formalised professional development is all well and good, but people (employers) don't just give you things unless they have to (or there is a compelling tangible/commercial benefit to them doing so) and they're unlikely to do it on your timescales and say-so. The reality of the world is that if you want to be successful you're going to have to spend some of your own time and money if you want to better your career and knowledge beyond your day-job - you should view it as investment in  yourself, I've used this attitude throughout my career by investing in my own lab gear and study time for industry certifications and it's stood me well.

Interest - if you're not interested in what you do, then this isn't for you - I'd hate to just have a day-job, I need something I'm interested and passionate about or I can't do it well.

On Monday, vSphere won the prestigious Infoworld Technology of the Year award, and we are all very excited about that. Infoworld publishes the awards in a series of 25 slides which you can download from their page. Congratulations to the vSphere team!

Last week, VMware has also won in ten out of fourteen categories of the 2012 Virtualization Review Reader’s Choice Awards. We are quite elated over that here in Palo Alto. The categories we won include: Application virtualization, Business continuity, Cloud computing, Desktop virtualization, Mobile, virtualization, and nine others. You can check out the full list and also download the Buyer’s Guide on virtualizationreview.com.

Oh YouTube, our partner team has published a funny little animated film about bringing out datacenter and VM management out of the stone age with VMware cloud management tools. It has cute little cave men running around beating on the servers with clubs and stones, and then happily abandoning all that for our solutions.

The It Support Support Guy is still on a roll with the newest installment called “It’s a wonderful job.”

And just yesterday, we have published a new series of videos about the real-world challenges in IT. There are currently two witty videos with cool South-Eastern soundtracks published on the vmwarerealworld.com page, and I expect there will be more. A little bit of insider info: both videos were shot on location here at our main office in Palo Alto.

Lastly, John has been quite active on the Google+ front. That’s doubly exciting since yesterday’s switch to personalized search on Google. If you haven’t heard, the personalized search (which you can toggle on and off as you please) will present the search results favouring content from your circles on Plus. This means that if you circle a bunch of VMware people, you will see more of our blogs and social posts in the personalized view. From where I stand, that means that you can see more content from the people you already know and trust, which can be a good thing.

So since yesterday, John has created a new VMware and Virtualization public shared circle. If you would like to be listed in it, you have to go and comment on the post on the VMware Google+ page in which John has announced the new shared circle.

VMware Community: a.p.
Twitter handle: @ap_unleashed
Current employer: Netzwerk GmbH (Germany) 

How did you get into IT?

During my apprenticeship as an electronics technician I got myself a Sharp PC-1500 with 2KB memory (for the younger audience, yes it's 2 Kilobytes, not 2 Gigabytes) on which I learned programming. About3 years later - after working as a technician in the US and Germany - I got a job at as a programmer in small company. While working as a programmer I had the opportunity to have projects in a lot of programming languages like BASIC, COBOL, TCL, STEP5, Pascal, C, Assembly language, Perl, … This is something I still benefit from, when it comes toe.g. scripting. In the late 90s I started managing Client-Server infrastructures - mainly OS/2 LAN-Server and Windows environments - as well as Citrix MetaFrame farms (Application virtualization, as it is called nowadays). It then took another few years, before I was hired by my current company, where I work as a Sr. Consultant and - besides other things - started with VMware ESX 3.0.

How did you get into working with VMware and becoming a 2011 vExpert?

As mentioned before,vSphere is one part of my duties in the company I work for. One of the resources I used to get into virtualization and find help was - and still is - the VMware Communities, which IMO is one of the most active and professional forum. First I only used the forums to find answers to issues I had to solve, later I started "paying" back by helping other users solve their issues. Then - last year in November - I was asked whether I wanted to volunteer as a Communities User Moderater, to which I agreed. In April this year I was nominated for the VMware vExpert 2011 and finally at July, 1st I received the Welcome mail from John Troyer.

What would you tell someone who wanted to get a job like yours to do?

Love your job and love to work with other people. It may be a long way with ups and downs. However, with dilligence and patience you will reach your goal.

Blog URL: www.virtualisedreality.com, www.handsonvirtualization.com
Twitter handle: @virtualisedreal
Current employer: computerworld.co.uk

How did you get into IT?

I have always had a passion for IT and technology in general, after studying computing in business at university I joined a technology focused company as a junior in the IT department. After many years working my way through the ranks and being involved with many technologies I discovered VMware and virtualisation. I got the bug and found myself a job with a VMware partner, I have enjoyed many years specialising in virtualisation and related technologies and now enjoy architecting solutions, overseeing implementation and still getting my hands dirty as well as evangelising about the technologies we specialise in.

How did you get into working with VMware and becoming a 2011 vExpert?

Once I started working with VMware on regular basis I found myself using the community resources an increasing amount , so in late 2008 I decided that I should be giving something back to the community and started my blog virtualisedreality.com. I was extremely honoured to receive the vExpert award in 2010 and 2011 for the work I put into my blog and contributing to the community that I still get a lot from today. In 2011 I started a podcast with Jonathan Franconi on HandsOnVirtualization.com, with the aim of learning more about the technology that surrounds the solutions in the industry I work in and to share this knowledge with a wider audience.

What would you tell someone who wanted to get a job like yours to do?

I would advise they ensure they work hard, make the most of the opportunities that are given to them and that they set themselves goals and ensure that they achieve them. I would also highly recommend getting involved with the communities, there are many ways you can get involved from the forums to blogging and twitter, by getting involved you will get to meet some fantastic people and it can open the door to some fantastic opportunities.

Blog URL: www.virtualizationimpact.com & www.handsonvirtualization.com
Twitter handle: @jfranconi
Current employer: VMware / Professional Services Organization / Technical Consultant  

How did you get into IT?

I started my life in IT at a very young age, it had to be around early 1992 or 1993 when I remember my father showing me the new IBM mainframe that was purchased for the family business. A few years later I can remember my father bringing home his first laptop, at the time a 30 pound IBM Thinkpad, from that moment on I couldn't get away from computers. Surprisingly, during my high school years I wasn't sure what I exactly wanted to do with my future career and bounced in and out of Law Enforcement and Information Technology.

It wasn't until I entered college at Pennsylvania College of Technology (Penn State's Core Technology Division) that I noticed that IT was for me. I did some internships at the college, worked the help desk and technical support at the school but it wasn't until a year before I graduated that I found my niche. Virtualization. This was around the time when VMware was just starting to be an idea in our minds, running more then one operating system on a server or workstation. I was amazed at the technology, and more importantly the underlying nuts and bolts that made it all work. I started working with VMware Server and GSX and then the very early ESX products, well before all of the processor architecture enhancements that pushed the virtualization concept from a concept to a reality. 

I graduated Pennsylvania College of Technology and found a position as a Network Administrator at large Law Firm in Pennsylvania and this kept me busy for a few years. I then moved on into another Network Administration position at large Insurance Company that was rapidly expanding its server environment. It was the perfect time for virtualization, I was reading all about of the amazing things VMware was doing with virtualization and what their product was capable of, and from there, the sky was the limit. I began a massive virtualization consolidation project, migrating physical servers to virtual running on VMware ESX 3.0, from that point on and through many version migrations and upgrades to vSphere, I designed and built a 95% virtualized environment. 

In mid-2011 I found myself at a crossroads, and with the type of personality that I have of constantly learning and challenging myself I felt it was time for a change.

My "dream", as weird as it may sound, was to work with VMware technology, whether that was a product that worked with it, or VMware itself. I found myself applying for jobs all around the virtualization field and interviewed with many virtualization centric companies. It was only a few weeks into the process that I accepted a position at VMware, which to say the least, was thrilling moment for me. To be able to not only have an amazing passion for the technology but to also work for the same company was more then I could have ever asked for. 

How did you get into working with VMware and becoming a 2011 vExpert?

As I said above, I started with Virtualization in college but didn't acutally start applying my knowledge until a few years later once the hardware technology caught up with the software. During my time working with VMware I noticed the incredible community interaction that VMware provided. I started visiting and participating in the VMware communities well before I started with migrations, it started to become a daily ritual. I found myself becoming truly passionate with the technology and with what VMware was able to do in release after release. At heart, I am truly a hardware guy, I love hardware and processor design and  the optimizations that occurred every year after year. Mixing the ever increasing CPU and Memory performance from chipmakers and the amazing technology from VMware, I found myself working not only with products I truly believed in, but also challenged me every single day. 

I always had a huge passion for collaboration and helping others, it's just in my nature. When I learn something new, I always enjoy turning around and helping the next person by sharing the same information. It was close to 2 years ago that I decided to start a blog and post about the topics I was working on. When I hit a wall or issue with something and figured out the solution, I started to write a post on the blog about the problem and how I solved it. Not only did this help others, but it also helped me to remember how I fixed that crazy issue a few months down the road. It wasn't too long into blogging that I found the incredible VMware/Technology Twitter community.

The more I engaged with the social media buzz and got  my blog out there in the community, I became close friends with Barry Coombs (vExpert) from London. He operates the blog virtualisedreality.com and we started talking about creating a core blog and combining our posts and ideas, which is how we ended up with handsonvirtualization.com. It wasn't long after we started the blog that we thought it was time to start Podcasting and interviewing all types of vendors; from storage, networking, virtualization and hardware and really getting into the core of the virtualization stack. Not only did I enjoy this interaction with vendors and different products, but it helped me gain even more knowledge into the vast array of different server/storage/networking technologies. This continued work with the community forums on VMware.com, interaction and support on Twitter and working with customers from all over the world day to day gave me the opportunity to become a vExpert. 

What would you tell someone who wanted to get a job like yours to do? 

I truly believe that you must have some sort of passion for technology, you can't expect to work a 9-5 job and think thats it. I have known many people in IT that think the work day ends at 5:00, in this field your day never ends and if you can't accept that or don't share that same passion, then it's not for you. However, if you have that passion for fast moving, constant learning and challenges then this is the area for you. I tell people all the time, every day that I wake up I always have one goal that I must accomplish, learn at least one concept, technology, maximum, best practice, etc that I didn't know the day before, even it's something small, these little pieces of information keep you fresh and informed. 

I strongly recommend getting involved in the social communities, whether its the VMware communities, Twitter or Blogs. The wealth of information available at your finger tips today is outstanding. Whether you join for relationships, comradeship, support of a product, or for the interaction with incredibly smart and talented individuals, its worth it. It's an amazing journey to the virtualized world, you might as well engage and share the wealth of knowledge!

While we were on the well-deserved holiday break, the Silicon Valley Business Journal has awarded our CEO Paul Maritz the title of the Executive of the Year 2011. In the interview with the Biz Blog, Paul has emphasized that the ongoing success and growth of VMware is rooted in having “teams of people who work effectively together.” He said the biggest challenge for companies is striking the right balance between having ambitious goals, and being so focused on those goals that you ignore constructive feedback.

For the more technical among our listeners, Sammy Bogaert has published a series of blog posts detailing how to build an ultimate affordable vSphere lab to prepare for your certification exams. It is PC-based, running Windows 7 with VMware Workstation 8. In his twelve-part series of articles, he covers everything you need to know to replicate the setup on your own, from the Hardware, the Workstation configuration, Domain controller, SQL server, vCenter and ESXi setup, to Storage and Fault Tolerance. Complete with step-by-step instructions and many screen shots, this guide will be a great help to anyone working on their Certification prep.

And finally, in an effort to better expose the wealth of content that VMTN community has to offer, we have launched a landing page that lists VMware related podcasts. Some are produced by VMware (such as the Roundtable Podcast today), and some are run by community members. On this page, you will also find a big green button you can click if you want to submit a link to a podcast that you’d like to see featured on this page. The podcast listing is located under communities.vmware.com/groups/podcasts - the location many of you already know.

We plan to extend this approach to more VMTN communities, such as vSphere, vCenter and so on, with the ability for the community members to contribute links to the lists. Links can be internal to the communities, and point to useful threads and documents, or they can be external. As long as they are relevant and helpful, we will publish them. The icons next to the links will help you distinguish VMware resources from external ones.

For now, go check out the Podcasts page and let us know what you think in that community.

Blog URL:http://blog.vmote.net
Twitter handle:@dawoo
Current employer:Xtravirt Ltd 

How did you get into IT?

Straight from school with only Commodore VIC20 and ZX Spectrum (48k) experience I landed a position in a local company, their proposition was software for telephone call logging. The first week was spent formatting floppies, copying files onto them, labelling them up and posting. It was a riot. By week two I was bored so read the MS-DOS 3.2 manual, not one I’d recommend for a riveting read. I started building XT / AT PCs, loading the OS and installing their software and soon after moved on…

How did you get into working with VMware and becoming a 2011 vExpert?

Accelerating through (many) years of support, developing in (Cobol & C) and more support I started a deployment of VMware ESX Server v2.5 booting from SAN (first in Europe) encompassing server consolidation, BC and DR, rather prevalent at the time. I’ve continue with VMware since then as it’s been one of the few products that simply ‘just works’.

The vExpert accolade came by surprise. Before this I was on the ‘Core Customer Program’ and reaped the rewards of VMware’s generosity with licenses, clothing and even a VMworld ticket. Yes I blog a bit, promote VMUGs and contribute where I can but I’ve being doing this since 2006 after presenting at a couple of US VMworlds, writing documents in the Proven Practice section etc..  Inwardly I am still very chuffed though.

What would you tell someone who wanted to get a job like yours to do?

Understand infrastructure concepts first, virtualisation is not a solution it’s part of the route towards utopia.

Blog URL: http://www.kendrickcoleman.com
Twitter handle: @KendrickColeman
Current employer: VCE

How did you get into IT?

I've been into computers since I was a kid. I'm 28 so I'm a younger guy on the scene, but I remember playing Wheel of Fortune on 5 1/4" floppy disks on some ancient piece of hardware. Then I got my dads old Pentium with Windows 3.1 and I spent loads and loads of time getting myself into trouble in the old AOL days. I'll leave those days for another time.

When I got to high school, I was still very much into technology and my high school was one of the first ones in the nation to actually offer CCNA prep courses as part of the curriculum. It was a 2 year course (which is way too much time to spend studying for a CCNA) and by the 2nd year, there were only 8 people left in the class. We all went out, took the CCNA and failed. Go figure.

During college I was the resident geek and was known for having the best electronics and sound system in the fraternity house, of course all backed by my custom built rig. I graduated from the University of Kentucky in 2006 with a MIS degree and my first job out of college was doing a bunch of VBA programming within Excel. I did that for about 3 months and knew that coding just wasn't for me. I caught wind of a position as a Systems Admin at a Marketing company in Louisville and I went in for the interview and was offered the job on my ride back to Lexington.

I immediately put in my 2 weeks notice and started my life being in more of a help desk role along with minor server maintenance. After 2 years, I knew I wanted something better so I buckled down, started studying for my CCNA, and got it.

After I received my CCNA, I applied for a position as a Network administrator at a law firm and began my wonderful journey into switch and router configurations. While I was on-boarding, they told me that I am replacing their VMware engineer as well so they sent me to the VMware FastTrack course for version VI3. When I was there, I immediately fell in love with the technology and completed shifted courses on where I wanted to focus my energy. 

How did you get into working with VMware and becoming a 2011 vExpert?

As I said before, I became a Network Engineer where 50% of my time was focused on VMware. Instead of reading about BPDU's I was learning about NIC design, vMotion, and more. I became completely enthralled with the technology. About that time (2008), twitter started blowing up and I began using it to find experts in fields of Networking, Network Security, and VMware. I began kendrickcoleman.com as a website to just host my resume for potential employers.

Before I knew it, I was using my blog as a documentation strategy for things that you couldn't find with Google. That’s sort of how I use my blog today as well, if I run into a problem or wants to know a certain process and nothing on Google is available, then I write a blog about it. I steer away from writing stuff like "evolution of cloud" or just my thoughts on things because people read my blog for helpful hints, tips, hacks, problem solving, and walkthroughs. Around May of 2009, the law firm started nose diving and cuts were happening.

I began pushing out resumes within hours of me losing my job and people on twitter were re-tweeting to help spread the message to find potential employers. After a couple of hours and a few DMs later, I was interviewing over the phone with IT Managers in San Francisco, Pittsburgh, and Palm Beach FL who were interested in me. I also received a call the next day from a local company who wanted me to come in for an interview and again I was hired just a few days later. I was lucky to only be out of a job for 4 days.

I came to this company as a Network Engineer and to completely build their VMware project from the ground up. Within 10 months I had 90% of the environment virtualized. They knew I was crazy about virtualization so they agreed to send me to VMworld 2010. I also got hooked up with David Davis at the time and he asked me to co-present. It was an honor and complete awesomeness to be in front of hundreds of people. The session was ranked 3rd at VMworld 2010 and we got invited to present in Copenhagen as well.

This is when I received my VMware vExpert 2010 award. I was very happy to receive this and join an elite group of individuals. About a month passed and my current rockstar boss asked me if I wanted to come interview for this little startup known as Acadia. I flew to Boston and gave a nerve wrecking 30 minute presentation and before I left to fly home, the job as a vArchitect was offered to me and I was ready for the next phase in my journey. I continue to keep up with the blogging and speaking at major events to help evangelize VMware and that's how I get to keep my VMware vExpert status. I think my journey shows you how crazy social media can take you places. 

What would you tell someone who wanted to get a job like yours to do?

A fellow vExpert and co-worker once told me, "if you are the smartest person at your company, you need to find a new job".  Keep challenging yourself and stretch your limits. I've always said that a great vSphere admin is a jack-of-all-trades and a master of none, which holds very true. There are so many moving parts in a vSphere admins life that you can't know everything about a particular subject such as networking or storage.

Knowing the right kind and correct amount will get you where you need to go. Join in the action because social media is the new "it's not what you know, it's who you know". Making yourself credible in the twitterverse and blogosphere can take you much further than you could have imagined 5 years ago. I can attest to that and so can many others. Your name becomes almost like a brand and it becomes recognized. 

Blog URL: http://drakpzone.wordpress.com
Twitter handle: @drakpz
Current Employer: Banca Popolare di Sondrio

How did you get into IT?

I got into IT when I was 12 with the first experience in gaming and developing software on my first pc. It all started there, with a growing passion for all things IT that brought me, in 1995, to my first job in IT. Eventually I found that system administration was a perfect fit for me, and since then… I never stopped

So, in the last 16 (wow, I’m getting old) years that’s what I’ve been doing: I started setting up the first few Unix servers, and it all grew to a full-fledged Data Center that currently holds hundreds of servers, appliances, network equipment, etc. Having to deal with every single bit of it has been a challenge, but it gave me the chance to get the whole picture, and to grow my knowledge of “IT things” well beyond the expectations I had back in 1995. Let me add, it’s fun!

How did you get into working with VMware and becoming a 2011 vExpert?

I discovered VMware in early 2000 (yes, that’s VERY early! J ), and after playing a bit with the first “workstation” release, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing: pure magic. The real joy anyway started in 2006, with the first “serious” installations of esx, and the game changer was ESX 3.0. VMotion alone was the killer feature we’ve been always waiting for, and the more we went deep into virtualization, the more was evident that was the way to go. A few servers later, “virtualization first” became the motto in my datacenter, and all the strategy around x86 environments was built around this revolutionary approach. I also self-applied myself the “vBastard” nickname, since I believe so much in virtualization and cloud computing  that I’m using different techniques to “convince” physical-oriented products and companies to go V, even if it requires being a little… evil. It’s my vWay, or the highway

I had the chance to attend four VMworld events so far (best event in the IT industry, IMHO), and during VMworld Europe 2010 I also had the chance to meet some great Italian guys and together we founded the VMUG Italian chapter (VMUG IT). I had the honour to be chosen as the first leader of the VMUG, and since then I put a lot of effort in endorsing meetings, activities, knowledge sharing and all the things that drive our passion for such a revolutionary and cool technology. Our first two meetings in 2011 showed lots of great feedback from VMUG members: all the hard work we’ve been doing to make VMUG IT a reality is really giving us back a tremendous amount of knowledge and community spirit. I’m very proud of what we do and how we do it.

What would you tell someone who wanted to get a job like yours to do? 

I’m totally biased, because I LOVE my job, so I’d just suggest to get into this world and start doing magic. Seriously though, it’s the best job in the world if you have passion for it, if you’re keen to explore new things, to live in the fast lane, and spend countless hours studying new tech, debugging nasty problems, or fixing stuff during long nights.

Are you a vExpert? Do you want your profile published? DM @VMwareCommunity for details.

Blog URL: http://www.demitasse.co.nz
Twitter handle: @DemitasseNZ
Current employer: Self-employed, contract Trainer and Consultant

How did you get into IT?

I started my IT career supporting a CAD lab, quickly moving from a University to an in-house role and then on to solution provider roles. 

My first big step up was seeing Citrix early and getting certified before leaving New Zealand for a few years in the UK.  Having certification in an emerging technology allowed me to get a better contract position than I would have otherwise found in a new country.

My next big step up was resigning from a salaried job to become self-employed.  This was a huge risk that I took as the main earner in the household, despite having children and a large mortgage.  There are always reasons why now is not the right time to go self-employed. In the end, I chose to take the leap and have faith in my ability to identify coming trends to stay valuable.

How did you get into working with VMware and becoming a 2011 vExpert?

I was first shown VMware in 2000 and loved the product that is now VMware Workstation.  I remember being told that VMware wanted to run servers in Virtual Machines and saying that nobody would want to do that.  Now my job is to teach people how to use vSphere to run their servers in VMs.

As a VMware Trainer, I meet new students most weeks and I have found that I like talking with people who use VMware products, I have more in common with them that with the other parents at my kid's schools.  I wanted to stay in touch and feel part of a community. One of the ways was to get involved with the local Virtualization Podcast, which for my region is the APAC Virtualisation Podcast.  When Andre, the founding host, was feeling overwhelmed I stepped up to host some episodes. Now that Andre has left the region I run the podcast. 

Of course I also blog when I see or do something that might be useful to others.

In addition this year I have started running vBeers events in New Zealand, this is a great way to meet up with other people who work with VMware products.  Take a look at http://vbeers.org for events in your area and if nobody else has set one up then host your own. I also organised a party before the local vForum event, styled after the VMUnderground parties.  It was another chance to get together and talk and I need to say a big thanks to the major sponsors, Veeam and NetApp who made the whole thing possible.  I'll be doing this again for the Sydney vForum 2012, maybe even a get together of the regional vExperts too.

The vExpert program rewards people that put their own time into helping others, it should be a side effect of your actions, not the reason for them.

What would you tell someone who wanted to get a job like yours to do?

Right now I am a self-employed VMware trainer. I am contracted to deliver courses for VMware or VATCs, often different courses in different cities each week.  I spend over half my nights away from home and a lot of days travelling.  The travel is hard and the uncertainty of the short 2-5 day contracts (since each course is a separate piece of work) is tough, however I've never been happier in my work.  I get to share my passion for virtualisation with new people every week.

My career has been led by the technologies I find exciting, the things I wanted to play with when I had quiet times at work or when I got home at night.  If you don't want to play with computers when you get home then you probably shouldn't be a self-employed computer guy.

Expect to have to build up skills over time, it won't happen overnight. 

Keep an eye open for the next big technology change; the big opportunities are revolutions not evolutions.  Right now mobile is changing everything, if you saw it coming five years ago then you have the right mind.  I have been using a smartphone for nine years, if I'd spent the first five learning to write mobile applications I would be well placed to be an iPhone appstore millionaire.

Certifications are a good way to establish credibility, but they are a supplement to experience, not a replacement.  Be good at what you do, then certification is much easier to get.

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