Last week the Top vBlog for 2018 where announced based on votes cast late last year on content delivered in 2017. Similar to last year Eric Siebert continued the new voting mechanisms that delivers a more palatable outcome for all who where involved. The mix of public votes and points based on number of posts and Google Page speed works well and delivers interesting results for all those active bloggers listed on the vLaunchpad.
The one thing I wanted to highlight before taking a look at the results was to talk about the ongoing importance of this vote in the face of some strong backlash over recent years it. It was pleasing to see a number of new entrants and those that made significant jumps go on social media and talk about how humbled and excited they where to make the list. This is an important reminder to those that might be feeling a little over it and cynical of the process to understand that there are always up and comers who deserve a shot at being in the spotlight. It still means a lot to those people…so don’t spoil it for them!
The Results:
As expected, the top two spots remained the same as last year with William Lam taking out the #1 spot with Vladan Seget, Cormac Hogan, Scott Lowe and Eric Siebert himself rounding out the top 5. There was lots of movement in the top 25 and I managed to climb up into #15 spot which is again…extremely humbling and I think those that voted for me again this year.
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 Rhys Hammond who debuted at #146 and to Jon Waite who does amazing technical deep dive posts around vCloud Director and debuted at 205.
| Blog | Rank | Previous | Change | Total Points | Total Votes | Posts 2017 |
| VCDX133 (Rene Van Den Bedem) | 10 | 11 | 1 | 2596 | 323 | 48 |
| Virtualization is Life! (Anthony Spiteri) | 15 | 19 | 4 | 2173 | 251 | 88 |
| Long White Virtual Clouds (Webster) | 36 | 20 | -16 | 1151 | 169 | 12 |
| CloudXC (Josh Odgers) | 48 | 29 | -19 | 1037 | 167 | 22 |
| Penguinpunk.net (Dan Frith) | 102 | 106 | 4 | 744 | 63 | 114 |
| Rhys Hammond | 146 | N/A | N/A | 546 | 50 | 21 |
| Virtual Tassie (Matt Allford) | 150 | 190 | 40 | 529 | 41 | 25 |
| Kiwicloud.ninja (Jon Waite) | 205 | N/A | N/A | 413 | 49 | 12 |
| ukotic.net (Mark Ukotic) | 217 | 201 | -16 | 393 | 29 | 15 |
| Ready Set Virtual (Keiran Shelden) | 254 | N/A | N/A | 285 | 31 | 16 |
Veeam Representation:
My follow colleagues at Veeam made it into the list with four of us in the top 20 which is a great effort and four of the Product Strategy team are included in the top votes. Special should out to Melissa Palmer who cracked the top 10! We have a strong community feel at Veeam and it’s reflected in the quality of the blogging we generate…There was also a sizeable representation from our Veeam Vanguard’s as well.
| Blog | Rank | Previous | Change | Total Points | Total Votes | Posts 2017 |
| vMiss (Melissa Palmer) | 6 | 16 | 10 | 2635 | 326 | 49 |
| Virtualization is Life! (Anthony Spiteri) | 15 | 19 | 4 | 2173 | 251 | 88 |
| Jorge de la Cruz Mingo | 16 | 30 | 14 | 1635 | 159 | 184 |
| Notes from MWhite (Michael White) | 17 | 31 | 14 | 1618 | 193 | 115 |
| vZilla (Michael Cade) | 29 | 44 | 15 | 1189 | 138 | 41 |
| Domalab (Michele Domanico) | 33 | N/A | N/A | 1159 | 98 | 78 |
| Virtual To The Core (Luca Dell’Oca) | 45 | 38 | -7 | 1045 | 138 | 32 |
| Tim’s Tech Thoughts (Tim Smith) | 110 | 48 | -62 | 704 | 78 | 17 |
| David Hill | 127 | 107 | -20 | 632 | 72 | 15 |
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.
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.
The whole list and category winners can been viewed here.
