View From The Floor - Doug Lane Day 3

By VSM News Staff
published: Thursday, February 26 2009

Descending from the vClouds on Day 3

Blogging live from VMworld Europe 09 - Doug Lane, Senior Director of Product Management, Virtual Computer

The final day of VMworld Europe had a vibe of practicality over sizzle.  With the major announcements and big ticket keynotes behind us, most attendees appeared to turn their attention to final housekeeping items before heading out of Cannes.  For conference attendees, it was catching a couple of final breakout sessions and self-paced VMware technology labs.  For vendors, including our team from Virtual Computer, it was squeezing in a final round of meetings with potential customers and partners.  There wasn't anything flashy going on, but there were a respectable number of diehards making the most of their remaining time at the show.

By the early afternoon, the show floor began to thin out a bit as expected.  On previous days, I had mostly darted around to specific booths that were "must see" for me.  Today, I found some time to walk the floor in search of any new and interesting startups.  Unfortunately, I didn't really find too much be excited about.  At the last VMworld show in Las Vegas, the show floor was bustling with new and innovative companies who in many ways stole the spotlight from the big guys in September.  That wasn't really the case at VMworld Europe, where most of the attention seemed to be on the major players.  I am sure that a cooling of the venture capital markets has reduced the number of new virtualization startups being funded, and those with funding are likely tightening the belts a bit to ride out the economic slump.

I don't mean to imply that there weren't a reasonable number of innovative small companies exhibiting, because there definitely were.  I just didn't come across anything new that dazzled me.  In fairness, I was clearing hitting the floor as fatigue was starting to set in for the exhibitors.  I approached a number of booths with technologies that I was legitimately interested in learning more about only to be received like a bank robber.  By that, I mean that they were more interested in scanning my badge and quickly handing over the giveaways that they didn't want to cart back to the office than they were in giving their product pitch for the 999th time.  I can empathize, but I regretted not finding more time to spend on the show floor earlier in the week when everyone was at the top of their game.  As we say in Cannes, c'est la vie.

Overall, VMworld Europe exceeded my expectations.  It was a solid show in a very difficult trade show climate.  However, it seemed a bit light on major new developments.  VMware's content, by my assessment, mostly consisted of re-announcing their September vClient initiative with the addition of Intel as a partner, showcasing incremental product improvements, and connecting the dots on what I like to call their "vStuff" branding and packaging strategy.

I was hoping for a PR stunt or two in the spirit of Microsoft's hilarious "www.vmwarecostswaytoomuch.com" poker chip shenanigans at last year's Vegas event, but it was not to be.  My other hope of running into Vinny Chase and the rest of the Entourage gang in Cannes and having them offer to fly me home on their private jet didn't pan out either.  So, coach it is.

VMworld Europe 2009 Coverage , Virtual Computer, View From The Floor - Day 1 , View From The Floor - Day 2