Last year at VMware’s annual Partner Exchange (PEX) conference, VMware told both Veeam and Nutanix that they were not welcome there. Both companies had planned on being there already and did show up anyway and had a presence outside of the Moscone to engage with attendees. This year it looks like VMware has had a change of heart and both companies will be there. I noticed this when I was submitting a sponsor session submission and both companies were listed in the sponsor selection, they are also listed in the PEX Content Catalog (yeah Rick Vanover will be there).

Why did VMware do this last year? It could be that they felt threatened by them and VMware wanted partners to focus on VMware’s offerings instead. To single them out doesn’t make a lot of sense though as almost every other vendor competes with VMware these days as well. About the only vendors left that do not compete with VMware in some way are SuperMicro and Seagate who sell hardware solutions only that are server-based and cannot be virtualized.

Why the change of heart this year? Could be that they don’t want to call attention to them and cause a Streisand Effect and thereby giving them even more exposure. Also PEX has mainly be a mostly VMware show in the past, however this year VMware is limiting partner activities at PEX by cutting down on the Solutions Exchange hours to only Monday from 5:00-7:00 and Tuesday/Wednesday from 11:00-3:30. There are also only 14 sponsor sessions versus 153 VMware only sessions.

Regardless of why, it should be a good show as we finally have a PEX that will be aligned with a major vSphere product launch. I’ll be there again this year and if you’re going as well I hope to see you there.

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