Yellow Bricks

by Duncan Epping

and that was 2014….

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We are nearing the end of 2014 and the start of 2015 so I figured it was the time to look back at what I did in the past 12 months. I have a bunch of stats which may be of interest, but of course also on a more personal level 2014 was a hectic year so lets start with that.

In 2014 from a more personal point of view:

  • Joined the VMware Foundation on a life changing trip to Vietnam. 2 weeks in Vietnam helping the great (and inspiring) folks of Orphan Impact. I was happy that I was able to contribute in some way, and very happy with all the kind readers who decided to donate to Orphan Impact, it really does matter!
  • Was part of the product team that made VMware EVO:RAIL happen. What a journey… Had never been part of a product team, and seeing something growing from just an idea on a whiteboard to a full blown product and seeing it launched is a great experience
  • Was promoted to Chief Technologist. Very honoured and humbled. What an insane journey the last 7 years at VMware, starting in PSO as a senior consultant, who would have thought.
  • Joined the VMware Office of CTO. Long dream to join this team of super heroes.
  • Co-authored “Essential Virtual SAN”, published through VMware Press and went to China for a book signing with a crazy long queue of people waiting.

Needless to say, but 2014 was hectic and life changing in many ways for me. But what about the stats?

  • Published 143 new articles, bringing it to a total of 1810 posts (including this one)
  • My 5 top referrers:
  • Visitors came from 224 countries with the US leading by large (6x more than the UK and India)
  • I had 3 major contributors in terms of comments, thanks John Nicholson / Forbsy and James Hess!
  • My top visited page was the Virtual SAN page
  • My top article was the EVO:RAIL Introduction article, but all VSAN articles score extremely high
  • Visitor traffic grew with 20%

Also from a stats perspective 2014 was a great year. I am hoping 2015 will be even better, and I want to wish all of you a Happy New Year!

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Great achievements in 2014, keep it up for 2015. Wish you and your family a very happy year full of joys and health.

  3. I read your blog every morning with my coffee, as do many many more, thank you, and best wishes in the coming year!

  5. Hi Duncan,

    I have to say that your site is the best resource for VMware centric information that I have found so keep up the good work.

    I would be keen to get your thoughts on the following:

    1. EVO:RAIL

    I am still really struggling with this one – as far as I can see it is a completely flawed idea and it not even available to purchase yet (much more thoughts at http://blog.snsltd.co.uk/vmware-evorail-or-vsan-which-makes-the-most-sense/).

    I assume it has been put on hold pending the release of vSphere 6.

    2. VSAN

    It’s a 1.0 product so lets slow down on the hype as clearly it is nowhere near as mature as EMC’s ScaleIO let alone a storage array from the likes of EMC or NetApp (much more thoughts at http://blog.snsltd.co.uk/comparing-vmware-virtual-san-with-emc-scaleio-and-conventional-storage-arrays/).

    But clearly it does have great potential.

    Best regards
    Mark