After 20 years, I am returning to my roots.

Life, and professional life too, occasionally takes interesting turns. Over 20 years ago, a door opened and launched me on a career in IT. I turned my back on my field of research and focused from then on on bits and bytes instead of amino acids and gene sequences. What followed was an amazing time of disruptive technological change. I was able to witness the triumph of virtualization from the very beginning and was a VMware fan from the beginning. I still remember very clearly the first migration of a VM with vMotion. It was a kind of magic and would fascinate me for the next 20 years.

Over the past year, profound changes in the world as we know it have once again become apparent. We are once again witnessing a radical transformation in the world of data centers. The market and technology leader of the last two decades is strategically realigning itself and the cards are being reshuffled. Many customers are no longer willing to go down this new path, or simply cannot afford to do so. I’m not talking about small customers here, but about upper mid-sized companies with up to 100 hosts and several thousand VMs. It’s time to recognize the iceberg on the horizon and make another course correction.

After two decades of intensive work as a freelance IT consultant, virtualization architect, and passionate trainer, I am starting a new chapter. In January 2026, I will take up a position at the Center for Organismal Studies (COS) at Heidelberg University—marking a return to my scientific roots.

A review

Over a period of more than 20 years, I have built up my expertise in the field of IT infrastructure and VMware virtualization and, as a freelancer, have supported numerous companies in setting up and modernizing their data centers, implementing cloud strategies, and operating hybrid environments.

VMware vExpert

The vExpert program not only opened the door to one of the friendliest global IT communities, but also boosted my reach and networking opportunities. For a long time, I considered my blog to be rather insignificant. It was only the encouragement of others that prompted me to join the program. Since my first application in 2017, I have been awarded the vExpert designation nine times in a row in several disciplines.

vExpertPro

The vExpert Pro initiative was launched to pave the way for new talents to join the vExpert community. Like me before, many potential candidates lacked external encouragement. A vExpert Pro is a mentor who prepares interested parties for their application and helps them maintain their status.

VMware Certified Instructor (VCI)

It is not only my passion to discover new things, but also to pass on the knowledge I have gained. That is why I have been a certified VMware trainer since 2018. It is a passion that I have pursued with particular joy. Being a trainer also meant always having to (and being allowed to) deal with the latest technologies. I considered it a privilege to come into contact with technological innovations very early on and (after an agreed embargo period) to write about them.

VMUG Germany

The VMware User Group (VMUG) is a community of VMware customers and users for direct exchange of experiences.

Together with my two fellow leaders Markus Gehm and Jens Klasen, I head up the VMUG group in Kaiserslautern and organize regular vCommunity meetings there. Regardless of my move, this will not change in the foreseeable future.

13. June 202013. June 2020

VMware vExpert 2020 application (2nd round)

The VMware vExpert program is VMware’s global evangelism and advocacy program. The vExpert program was designed by VMware to reward community members for evangelizing VMware’s products and services. Each year the title vExpert is awarded to people who have contributed to the community in an outstanding way. That can be bloggers, book authors, public speakers, VMUG leaders, VMTN contributors, VCDX and other IT professionals who share their knowledge.

Application

Application opens twice a year. Currently the second half application is open from June 1st to June 25th.

Why to become a vExpert

Yes there are benefits (I will come back to that later), but that’s not the point. Being a vExpert is not about what to get, but what you can give. Many vExperts put a lot of their spare time into the community. Preparing a blog post, a VMUG presentation or organizing a VMUG meeting consumes a lot of time. For those community warriors is the vExpert program.

Since I’ve joined the vExpert program I made a lot of friends in the community. I also witnessed a very warm welcome as a newcomer by seasoned vExperts. To name just a few there was Ather Beg from Britain, Andreas Lesslhumer from Austria and Vladan Seget from Reunion Island.

10. March 201813. March 2018

VMware vExpert award 2018

With pleasure I’ve found an email in my inbox, telling me that I’m part of the 2018 vExpert program.

Another year vExpert

For me it’s an honor and an obligation. I will continue to share my knowledge with the community, and – time permitting – extend that effort.

VMware vExpert Program

The annual VMware vExpert award is given to individuals who have significantly contributed to the community of VMware users over the past year. The title is awarded to individuals (not employers) for their commitment to sharing their knowledge and passion for VMware technology above and beyond their job requirements.

The VMware vExpert program is VMware’s global evangelism and advocacy program. The program is designed to put VMware’s marketing resources towards your advocacy efforts. Promotion of your articles, exposure at our global events, co-op advertising, traffic analysis, and early access to beta programs and VMware’s roadmap. The awards are for individuals, not companies, and last for one year. Employees of both customers and partners can receive the awards. In the application, we consider various community activities from the previous year as well as the current year’s (only for 2nd half applications) activities in determining who gets awards. We look to see that not only were you active but are still active in the path you chose to apply for.

Links

vExpert tweets on Twitter: #vExpert

VMTN Blog – vExpert 2018 Award Announcement

VMware – vExpert Directory

5. November 201713. December 2017

vExpert experience

The first 3 months in the life of a vExpert

I’ve been blogging about virtualization and VMware for almost 8 years now. It started simple as a digital reminder, or as I like to call it: “a swap partition for my brain”. This blog was meant to be a central location to store all these tips and tricks, procedures and workarounds. I didn’t expect anyone to read my content and in fact in the beginning there was no reaction. After two years of blogging, first responses reached me (someone actually read that stuff). So I’ve started to design my posts in a more comprehensive and educational way. More and more people wrote comments or sent emails – all of them very encouraging and positive.

Thank you all for pushing me forward.

In May 2017 I’ve visited VeeamON in New Orleans. After more than a decade in virtualization this was my first international convention and also a game changer. I met there some well-known bloggers, vExperts and Vanguards. While chatting about their blogs I found out that some of them actually knew my site, which honestly surprised me.

Until then my personal definition of vExperts were people whose blogs I used to read frequently. Excellent resources like Yellow-Bricks by Duncan, ESXvirtualization by Vladan, frankdenneman.nl by Frank, CormacHogan by himself and a dozen others. In mid 2017 some colleagues convinced me to apply for vExpert 2017 (2nd half). Honestly, I did not expect to have the slightest chance of success – but on the other hand I had nothing to lose. OK, let’s press submit.

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