Comments on: The process behind judging the Best of VMworld awards

By: Jo Maitland

Jo Maitland — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 17:27:44 +0000

Doug,

My desk line is 781 429 4137 if you have questions.

Thanks,
Jo

By: Vmdoug

Vmdoug — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 15:39:49 +0000

@Jo, feel free to give me a call if you’d like to discuss

By: Jo Maitland

Jo Maitland — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 15:04:51 +0000

Doug,

I think you are stuck on the quotes from the awards ceremony. The purpose of a quotation, is to add color in describing something. For example the judges might have said such and such a product performs “faster than a speeding bullet”. But you realize we did not test this out in a lab, right? It’s an expression of enthusiasm and opinion about the product. That’s it.

By: Jo Maitland

Jo Maitland — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 14:50:37 +0000

Hi Eric,

Thanks so much for taking the time to write this post. Every year there are vendors that lose and attack our company, attack our process, attack the judges and even attack us personally. I guess it’s easier than focusing on what they could do better.

I have called a couple of said vendors, who will remain nameless as I don’t want to give them anymore unwarranted attention, but I have yet to hear back from them.

Instead they would rather fire off one-way emotionally charged tweets that should be left to dim-witted celebrities. Personally, I expect a lot more from the technology industry.

Executive Editor
Data center & Virtualization Media Group
TechTarget Inc.

By: Vmdoug

Vmdoug — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 14:42:43 +0000

Eric,

Thanks for the clarification, but I’m still a bit confused at the criteria you mentioned as many of the criteria do require an installation. I totally understand that judging is not easy, and I appreciate all the hard work that goes into this. As a vendor though, it is sometimes difficult to take a loss, especially when the stated reasons for loosing imply that the products were installed and/or tested for performance as stated in an earlier TT blog post…seems contradictory.

From your criteria above…do you just take the vendor’s word for it on the following?

# Performance – Does the product perform to the degree that it could improve overall data center operation?
# Ease of use and manageability – Is the product easy to install? Are the product’s functions clear and easy to learn and run? Will the product scale smoothly to accommodate growth in an environment?
# Functionality – Does the product deliver as promised? Does the product provide greater or more useful functionality than others in its category? Are there serious functional omissions?

Thanks,

-doug