Seems that all bloggers I follow these days post a review on the year that’s been…in a short summation, my 2013 was extremely satisfying.

Reading through my January 1st 2013 Post from last year, I managed to achieve my ultimate goal of greater work/life balance. This was done ultimately with a change in company and an ounce of good timing…I had been unhappy and stressed in my previous role and I had been searching for #DIRECTION before the ZettaGrid opportunity presented it’s self. I certainly didn’t lack passion or drive in what I was doing, but when you start to struggle for motivation…change is required! I was able to put behind me a fundmentally broken work culture and step in one that is more rewarding and positive.

In the new role I’ve been able to focus more on my professional passion of Virtualization and Cloud while stepping into a role where I have control and influence over one of the largest Virtualization Platforms in Australia and is the largest vCloud Powered Provider in the region. I’ve been able to learn so much in the first six months and with that, confidence in my own technical ability continues to be strengthened and reinforced. The future for ZettaGrid is bright and I feel privileged to embark on a crazy couple of years riding the wave and being part of something truly special in the Australian IT industry.

Through this new role I’ve been able to pursue more public speaking opportunities at various events and I look forward to that continuing at events such as the VMUG User Conferences, VMware Solutions Series and vForum 2014. There is an art to delivering a good technical presentation and as a speaker, I’m learning that preparation, practice and confidence in your topic is key to a successful talk.

I’ve been able to achieve a couple of certification goals this year as part of my #getlegit campaign. So I am officially a VCP-DCV (with a VCA-DCV/Cloud thrown it) and next on my list is to achieve a couple VCAPs. I’ve decided that at this stage, going for a VCDX is not in the best interest of my work/life balance…but I can’t rule it out for 2015 and beyond. Wonder if the ship had sailed by that stage?

As part of the vChampion program that VMware ANZ runs I’ve been lucky to to have attended a number of VMware related events and had some excellent sessions with industry leaders and VMware staff. The inside information we are privy to is invaluable and at times has directly resulted in positive outcomes during projects and a like. One of the highlights of the last year was a breakfast session after vForum where Martin Casado gave a talk on the origins of Nicira.

Rounding up this post, Id like to highlight the awesome tech community that exists all over the world that is bonded together with their love of all things VMware. It’s an unbelievable supporting community extremely active on Twitter, LinkedIN and via programs such as the #vExperts. Without it, I don’t think I would have has the success and reward that I has come my way over the past 12 months…special shout out to the Melbourne vMafia who are a great bunch of blokes to know and bounce off. I look forward to continuing on as a vExpert in 2014 and help to spread knowledge and opinion on all things Hosting and Cloud.