Let me start off first by introducing myself to the education community and blog followers. If you have not already heard or read my personal blog post from last week, I’ve decided to take on the role of VCDX Evangelist for VMware. If you don’t know anything about me, here are a few interesting tidbits I borrowed from the internal announcement email. I figured that was easier than re-writing anything, and being accused of self-promoting myself since my new manager Steve Beck wrote it.
About Me
I am Principal Architect holding VCDX #37, and have been and continue to be an active leader in the VCDX community and VMware blogosphere. I began my career with VMware 7 years ago in Professional Services (PSO). In 2010, I joined the Cloud Practice and was a major contributor to the Global CoE until joining vCloud Air Technical Marketing in 2013, where I was a significant contributor to the successful service launch.
I live with my wife Julie and our dog in Tennessee, where we are building our dream home after having moved recently from 40 years of “winter hell” in New England. When I say “Living” in TN, I also should point out that means living in a 34′ Motor Coach in an RV park for the past six months! Trust me it sounds glamorous, but it has gotten small at this point! Despite the move, I remain a “die hard” New England Patriots [American] football fan (with the team logo tattooed on my shoulder to prove it). In my spare time on weekends, my wife and I teach a free “Fit Club” in our new town to help meet new people and give back to the community.
I’m very excited to take part in this leadership role to help customers, partners, and potential candidates realize the value of the certification. I don’t plan on just being a figurehead, I plan on being an activist for it both internally and externally. I come to this with a lot of passion about helping scale it up as well as out.
Now What About VCDX?
For some reason, I am not sure why, there are rumors floating around that the VCDX program is “going away”, or now that key contributors have left it will no longer be the same. Let me just say that I would not take on a role to evangelize a program if I thought it was doing to die on the vine. I have a great deal of respect for those that started, grew, nurtured, and brought the program to where it is today. Those people over the years have all come and gone. Some existed early on, others took over in between, and ultimately the people will always change. That never means that a program, any program, is going to automatically go away so let’s dispel that rumor right now shall we?
As for the viability of the program, it’s moving ahead with all the things you would expect. We are having another VCDX party in Barcelona at VMworld Europe, the October defenses are ready to kick off, and we will be scheduling 2015 defenses soon. We will also be promoting the bootcamps, and other things that have been around to help people through the program. Nothing is changing as far as the current events and things we need to do in order to keep the program moving.
What I cannot say or speak to just yet is if or how some aspects of the program may or may not change. There are a lot of views, opinions, and input that the education team is gathering about this and ultimately we want candidates to aspire to achieve a VCDX while at the same time allowing it to scale, as well as, make sure there is value in it for both the candidate, VMware, and the partners. In order for that to happen, maybe some things have to change, maybe not. I am a fan of change, I think it’s a good thing. I’m not scared of it I feel it’s an inevitability and you need to embrace and welcome change if it happens to come along. I changed my whole live moving to a new state where don’t know a soul or have other family besides my wife to lean on for support. Many people would run from that level of change, I was excited for it to happen!
Keep your eye and ears open, please leave comments on this post, catch me on twitter @CColotti, I’m here to support the community and the program both, so please do not hesitate to get me your feedback!
