I was lucky enough to be given a heads up around some of the announcements at this year’s VMware Explore. Somewhere between 1600-1700 22nd August, Kit Colbert will be sharing a new showcase program for customers and partners to take advantage of.
What Is VMware Showcase?
This is a new program that customers and partners can sign up to providing them with product access for testing and feedback. This is a unique program that gives you access to services that aren’t for resale, allowing you to shape them with the business units.
For any technologist this program is going to be great as it will give you bleeding edge access to VMware potential.
Tech Showcase is focussed on PIONEERS, DISRUPTORS and DOERS! We are invited to make an impact on the latest tech before its fully productised. You get to define what you want!
Contributing is super simple… Easy as 1,2, 3:
- Join up to a project at https://www.vmware.com/showcase
- Use the new tech
- Provide feedback
It cannot get any easier!
Why are VMware Launching This?
Simply… The customer and partner base have been asking for this. I know I have for years! Being a vExpert is great and I have access to NFR licensing, but its rare you get access to early release product. Working for CDW, I also get quite a bit of access into the VMware teams but this is generally just conversational…. Now I get to play too! And so do you!
In return, VMware get telemetry that helps them to shape their product and GTM messaging. Sounds like a win-win to me!
How Does This Differ From Flings and Hands on Labs?
Quite a bit…. See the shared slide from Natalie Fisher, Senior Product Line Manager / xLabs – OCTO at VMware.
The key differences here are that Flings do not have business unit commitment or support to launch, whereas Tech Showcase projects do! Hands on Labs focusses on launched selling products, whereas this gives you early access to new products from VMware.
What is Launching First?
With any new launch it will be small, and scale over time. The first two services on Tech Showcase will be:
- Project Keswick
- A solution for edge devices enhanced with GitOps workflows for deterministic and declarative management through a cloud control plane
- Project Trinidad
- A solution for securing Modern Applications against Zero-Day attacks
What Will Come Next?
More services! From what I have been told these will be focused around AI/ML projects later this year.
Where do I sign up?