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Well, it’s certainly been an interesting time in my professional life, lately. I’m pleased to announce that I’ll be starting in a new role with VMware next week, running the “Platform” product line team for the vCHS business unit. This is a new team I’ll get to build from the ground up. Our job is to make the inherent benefits of using the service extend beyond the actual workloads, and help you leverage the hardware, software and management ecosystem(s) you have already invested in, or want to explore. I can’t tell you how excited I am.
Big picture, this is actually a return to more of what I was doing in my previous life at a service provider. Being able to work with customers and sales teams to figure out needed features and actively work to bring those to market is something that I deliberately stepped away from when I joined VCE. I wanted to experience life on the vendor side of the equation, knowing that an understanding of that mindset would be valuable going forward. It certainly was. Now it’s time to go back to my roots, just on a much (much) larger scale. The easy part of this decision was the people I get to work with. My good fortune to go from one team of incredible people from whom I gained so much to another group of the same caliber doesn’t go unnoticed. From the minute Chris Colotti introduced me to the team, I was convinced this could be somewhere I would love to work. Add in the rest of the VMware talent pool in general, and I’m very grateful to be part of the company. I have a lot to learn but some great people to learn from. VMware wasn’t the only public cloud company I explored during this process, and goodness knows each vendor has it’s own strengths and weaknesses. For me, VMware is like home: it’s the technology I know the best, the customers I’ve interacted with the most and the team I’ve worked with the longest. Certainly VMware has an opportunity in the public/hybrid cloud space, especially with their huge installed private cloud base, but there’s a steep hill involved as well. I’ve decided that I’d like to jump in and help the team get a little closer to the top.
Of course you take one position and there are other opportunities that you have to walk away from. Thank you to all of the people I talked with over the last month. I met so many cool people, was introduced to so many neat companies and learned so much. Many of those relationships will endure long past the interview process. I’m glad the whole process is over, but grateful I got to experience it. I’m very fortunate. One of the opportunities that I’ll miss the most after moving over to VMware is my continued participation with the Pacific Crest Mosaic group. Being part of that organization has been one of the most pleasant surprises of my career, and the people I’ve met, and relationships I’ve formed, will last my career. Colin McNamara was the one who introduced me, and I’ll always be grateful. Being on the same team as Colin, George Reese, John Willis, Brian Gracely, Vanessa Alverez, Marc Villemade, Sarah Novotny, Chris Wahl, Matthew Norwood and so, so, so many others has been a huge thrill, and the events that we got to participate in were special. I’ll never forget sitting at a dinner table in Hong Kong listening to George and Josh McKenty compare notes from opposite sides of the very first OpenStack Summit, down to which lawsuit got settled when so that the first version of code could be released to the public. It was incredible to get to be a fly on that wall. My thanks go out to Tim, Alexis, Jessie, Erin and all the great people at Pacific Crest. My time off has been good. Cathartic, even. Being off the road and spending time with the family has been priceless, and I’m grateful to my wife for all her support and understanding as I reintegrated myself into the every day schedule of kids and school and errands. That said, seven weeks is more downtime than I’ve had in the last three years combined, and I’m ready to head back. Time for a new adventure. I can’t wait to get started. |
