Some milestones make you stop and think. receiving the VMware vExpert 2026 award — for the eighteenth consecutive year — is one of them.
Eighteen years. That's a long time in any industry, but in the world of enterprise virtualization and cloud infrastructure, eighteen years feels like several lifetimes. When I received my first vExpert recognition, VMware ESX was still a thing, vSphere was just emerging, and the idea of software-defined networking was barely on the horizon. Today, the conversation is about VMware Cloud Foundation, NSX, automation pipelines, and multi-cloud architectures. The technology has changed enormously. The community spirit, fortunately, has not.
What the vExpert Program Actually Means
The vExpert award isn't a certification. It's not something you study for or pass an exam to earn. It's a recognition by VMware — now part of Broadcom — of ongoing, real-world contributions to the broader VMware community. That can take many forms: blogging, presenting at VMUG events, creating training content, helping peers troubleshoot complex issues, or simply being a consistent and reliable voice in the community.
For me, it has always been about sharing what I learn in the field. Enterprise environments are messy, complex, and full of edge cases that no documentation ever quite covers. Over the years, the things I've written about, the sessions I've delivered, and the conversations I've had with fellow engineers have all come from that same place: "I just solved something hard, and someone else will run into this too."
That spirit of practical knowledge sharing is exactly what the vExpert program recognizes, and it's why being part of this community still feels meaningful after nearly two decades.
Looking Back — and Forward
Reflecting on eighteen years in the vExpert program means reflecting on eighteen years of the industry itself. I've watched VMware grow from a virtualization powerhouse into a full-stack enterprise platform vendor. I've seen NSX go from a niche SDN product to the backbone of zero-trust network segmentation in major enterprises. I've lived through the shift from manual deployments to infrastructure-as-code, from on-premises-only thinking to hybrid and multi-cloud reality.
Through all of it, the core of my work has remained consistent: helping organizations make sense of complex VMware environments, whether that means designing a VCF deployment, troubleshooting an elusive NSX routing issue, or building automation that makes life easier for platform teams.
What has changed is the pace. The ecosystem moves faster now. Broadcom's acquisition of VMware brought significant changes to licensing, product bundling, and the roadmap — changes that many customers are still navigating. That makes community knowledge sharing even more important than it used to be. When the vendor documentation lags behind reality, the community fills the gap.
What's Coming in 2026
My focus for the year ahead will be squarely on VMware Cloud Foundation and NSX, with a strong emphasis on automation and practical troubleshooting. VCF has become the strategic platform for many of the organizations I work with, and there's enormous demand for content that goes beyond the marketing layer — content that addresses real deployment challenges, upgrade paths, integration considerations, and day-two operations.
I'll also continue contributing to training. One of the most rewarding parts of this work is seeing someone go from confused to confident on a technology they've been struggling with. If a blog post, video, or training session makes that happen for even a handful of engineers, it's time well spent.
Thank You
To the vExpert program team — Corey Romero and the rest of the community and advocacy team — thank you for continuing to run a program that genuinely values practitioners. And to everyone in the VMware community who reads, comments, shares, or simply nods along because you've been in the same situation: this is for you.
Here's to year eighteen, and to whatever challenges year nineteen will bring.
