I’m still fresh from yesterday second VMware mini-conference in Slovenia. Arguably it’s the largest event dedicated to virtualization in Slovenia (but don’t be fooled by that, we could probably hardly fill an average Irish pub in your corner of the World).
Before I continue, don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of VMWare products since day one. What bothers me is how easily our branch produces tons of acronyms, buzzwords and other fluffy words to promote “new” technology to us, tired, old consumers. We all know one such notorious hot buzzword was Web 2.0. I was told, not that long ago, how Web 2.0 is the next big thing that will change our lives. You can either join us or die as a dinosaur. No one could really explain to me what exactly Web 2.0 is or when we’ll see Web 3.0. A few years later (I hope), most of us are aware (ok, with the exception of most executive managers) that Web 2.0 as such doesn’t exist, never did, never will. It’s (was) just another buzzword to easy promotion and selling of some pretty much “old and boring” acronyms (such as Ajax, RSS, WS, SOA, Wiki, blogging, Tagging, podcast, mash-ups, “social” web, etc.), it’s much easier to pack everything in one big bag called Web 2.0, doesn’t it? Rarely people understood what lies behind Web 2.0, but it surely sounded cool to be able to discuss Web 2.0 at cocktail parties during IT conferences session breaks.
Roll forward…today Web 2.0 is a cold turkey (if you don’t believe me, I recommend reading a nice column written by Lance Ulanoff), our branch needed another buzzword to ride on. Welcome to cloud computing. It was just a matter of time when someone will go over the top and announce cloud Operating System (or cloud OS). VMWare did that when they announce the industry first cloud operating system. vSphere (successor of VMWare VI3) is the next big thing. New software category. Some bloggers went even further, calling vSphere a software mainframe. I’m not arguing if this is justifiable or not, neither I’m denying VMWare innovation effort and progress on the field of virtualization. Kudos to them! They’re kings of the hill, a clear industry leader. But, do we really need another frenzy buzzword polka in our industry?
I can vividly imagine Steve choking with the muffin at the breakfast, while browsing the press and seeing VMWare announcement…: WTF!? How come they’re first on the market? How come we didn’t see it first!? A hole new software category! Billions of new opportunities. Green ones! Hmm…could we call it Cloudy Windows 7 or at least bring back that trendy default desktop background picture from Windows XP!?