Time is truly precious. With a blink of an eye, the years seem to be flying by, which makes it hard to believe in about another month marks four years at VMware for me. Its been a place with no shortage of learning and growing opportunities. I also feel incredibly blessed to have gotten the chance to work and collaborate with so many talented folks across the different business units within VMware.
I spent the first three years working alongside a group of highly-skilled technical marketing architects in the Cloud Platform business unit (CPBU), part of the R&D organization at VMware. My first focus area was vCenter Server, a product I was familiar with and used as a customer. I started out helping customers migrate from vCenter Server for Windows to the vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA) and covering the vCenter Server product overall. We did these migrations using various methods with no to minimal downtime, depending on the customer environment. Of course, this was before the release of the first official migration tool, vCenter Server 6.0 U2m, announced during VMworld 2016.
Once the official vCenter Server migration tool was available, it made sense to also focus on vSphere lifecycle. The vCenter Server migration tool not only copied data (inventory and configuration by default) from one platform to another (vCenter Server for Windows to the VCSA), the process was also an upgrade. During this time, I worked on a series of content that included scenarios and later an ebook to help customers with their vSphere upgrades. Adam Eckerle and I also started to create workshops that we delivered at various VMUGs, VMworld US, and VMworld EMEA. These workshops became in such high demand; this led to the creation of a team under the vSphere Tech Marketing managed by Adam to specifically help with vSphere lifecycle.
Shortly after, in addition to vCenter Server, I started working on VMware Cloud on AWS (VMC) with a focus on hybridity and workload mobility. It was exciting being part of something like VMC from the beginning and getting the opportunity not only to influence the service but also work on new technology such as stretched clusters and hybrid linked mode. When it came to workload mobility, this was my first introduction to VMware HCX. An all-in-one platform that simplified workload mobility from any site, whether on-premises or cloud. Around this time, I had been in technical marketing for about 2 1/2 years and began to think about what I wanted to do next in my career.
An opportunity to join the vSphere product management team presented itself working on driving the direction for vCenter Server lifecycle. Towards the end of 2018, I joined the PM team working on new functionality to help simplify vSphere lifecycle. While I can’t go into details, I would recommend watching this VMworld session presented by William Lam and myself and pay attention to the tech preview section. Having been in the PM role for a year, I learned so much about product development, delivery, and the number of meetings one could have on their calendar.
Recently another opportunity presented itself, and I’m excited to announce that I have joined the VMware HCX team as Customer Zero. In this role, I’ll be working closely with VMware HCX product management, engineering, and design on upcoming enhancements/functionality and also providing early feedback on usability and integrations, including on-premises, VMware Cloud on AWS, Google Cloud VMware Solution, and Azure VMware Solution. There is also the bonus of getting to work with a community member and food thief (guard your plate), Amy Lewis. I look forward to this new opportunity and sharing everything coming from the VMware HCX team.