In the upcoming version of vCenter, the Alarm section is greatly improved. You can create alarm rules which are triggered when an event like powering on a Virtual Machine occurs. Event triggers monitor events that occur on managed objects, vCenter Server, and the License Server. An event is recorded for any action that is of interest to vCenter Server.
I created a new alarm that sends me an email when someone reconfigures one of the virtual machines. As a test, I removed the USB controller from a virtual machine and instantly I received an email from my vCenter Server.
[VMware vCenter - Alarm Test Event] Reconfigured Connection on 192.168.178.251 in NTPRO
Target: Connection
Previous Status: Gray
New Status: Red
Alarm Definition:
([Event alarm expression: VM reconfigured; Status = Red])
Event details:
Reconfigured Connection on 192.168.178.251 in NTPRO