It feels like this year moving along at ludicrous speed so it’s no surprise that the Top vBlog for 2017 has been run and won. This year Eric Siebert changed things up by introducing new voting mechanisms to try and deliver a more palatable outcome for all who where involved…I think it worked well and delivered interesting results for all those active bloggers listed on the vLaunchpad.

Eric introduced a point system based on Google Page Speed and the number of posts in 2016 to help level the playing field and make it less of a perceived popularity contest. Introducing tangible metrics to make up a portion of the total ranking points was an interesting move and seemed to work well. If nothing else it made people (myself included) more aware around the dark art of web page speed optimization…and this has meant a better browsing experience for those visiting Top vBlog sites.

The Results:

As expected, with Duncan Epping bowing out of the race William Lam deservedly took out the #1 spot with Vladan Seget, Cormac Hogan, Chris Wahl and Scott Lowe rounding out the top 5. There was lots of movement in the top 25 and I managed to sneak into the top 20 at #19 which is extremely humbling.

Creating content for this community is a pleasure and has become somewhat of a personal obsession so it’s nice to get some recognition and I’m happy that what I’m able to produce is (for the most) found useful by people in the community. I’m a passionate guy in most things that I am involved in so it’s no surprise that I feel so strongly in being able to contribute to this great vCommunity…especially when it comes to my strong passion around Hosting, Cloud, Backup and DR.

Aussie Representation:

As with previous years I like to highlight the Aussie and Kiwi (ANZ) representation in the Top vBlog and this year is no different. We have a great blogging scene here in the VMware community and that is reflected with the quality of the bloggers listed below. Special mention to Matt Allford who debuted at #190 …watch out for him to climb up the list over the next few years!

Blog Rank Prev +/- Total Points Total Votes Voting Points #1 Votes # 2016 posts Post Pts PS % PS Pts
Virtualization is Life! (Anthony Spiteri) 19 44 25 1420 165 1042 15 123 246 66% 132
Long White Virtual Clouds (Michael Webster) 20 13 -7 1374 201 1228 7 17 34 56% 112
CloudXC (Josh Odgers) 29 17 -12 1166 144 930 7 53 106 65% 130
Penguinpunk.net (Dan Frith) 106 78 -28 545 48 317 4 46 92 68% 136
Virtual 10 (Manny Sidhu) 115 82 -33 520 44 268 0 32 64 94% 188
Proudest Monkey (Grant Orchard) 127 93 -34 501 53 341 0 11 22 69% 138
Demitasse (Alastair Cooke) 140 168 28 467 42 261 0 33 66 70% 140
Pragmatic IO (Brett Sinclair) 174 153 -21 418 29 222 6 12 24 86% 172
Virtual Tassie (Matt Allford) 190 NEW NEW 392 29 170 1 23 46 88% 176
ukotic.net (Mark Ukotic) 201 179 -22 369 24 159 6 14 28 91% 182
Virtual Notions (Derek Hennessy) 266 298 32 253 21 121 0 25 50 41% 82
Veeam Representation:

My follow colleagues at Veeam made it into the list and all below made the top 50!

Blog Rank Prev +/- Total Points Total Votes Voting Points #1 Votes # 2016 posts Post Pts PS % PS Pts
Virtualization is Life! (Anthony Spiteri) 19 44 25 1420 165 1042 15 123 246 66% 132
Notes from MWhite (Michael White) 31 38 7 1080 108 642 2 132 264 87% 174
Virtual To The Core (Luca Dell’Oca) 38 41 3 927 111 695 2 36 72 80% 160
vZilla (Michael Cade) 44 120 76 871 109 645 9 27 54 86% 172
Tim’s Tech Thoughts (Tim Smith) 48 100 52 837 92 583 5 32 64 95% 190
The Results Show:

Again a massive thank you to Eric for putting together the voting and organising the whole thing. It’s a huge undertaking and we should all be in gratitude to Eric for making it all happen.

The whole list and category winners can been viewed here.