20 Memorable Examples Of VMworld 2011 Signage

VMworld 2011: Weird, Wacky And Wonderful

Virtualization and cloud computing are the two most booming segments of the IT industry right now, so it's not surprising that vendors in this space would have considerable marketing resources at their disposal. But strolling around the show floor at VMworld 2011, one couldn't help but be impressed with the creativity in the marketing signage in the booths.

There are only so many ways to make the case that the cloud and virtualization are saving companies tons of money and propelling the industry to new heights of efficiency, but somehow, VMworld exhibitors found ways to express themselves in ways that stood out, and in some cases, entertained. Following are 20 examples.

Xangati: The Administrators Strike Back

Xangati, a vendor of virtualization monitoring and management software, took a page from the George Lucas playbook with this re-imagining of The Empire Strikes Back. Managing virtual and cloud environments can be difficult, and admins at VMworld probably nodded their heads in agreement, as they've been feeling a need to strike back against this force for quite some time.

NetApp's Cloud Storage Message

The central role of storage in cloud computing is a simple concept, and NetApp goes with minimalistic design to illustrate the concept. This guy is putting some stuff on his laptop in his briefcase, and storing other stuff in the cloud, and NetApp is helping him do that.

Blown Away By The Cloud

8x8, a vendor of cloud-based VoIP, video, mobile, and unified communications products, is blown away by the ability to move mission critical workloads to the cloud, as is evident from this guy's expression. He's either really amazed by cloud infrastructure, or he just jumped out of a plane.

I've Got My Eyes On You -- All Four Of Them

Eaton, whose Intelligent Power Manager for vCenter plug-in helps control energy consumption in the data center, was one of many vendors giving away tablet PCs on the VMworld 2011 show floor. This four-eyed monster was apparently intended to show how the company's technology maintains ever-present surveillance on data center power consumption.

Wyse Pulls A Marc Benioff On The PC Industry

You've seen those Salesforce.com ads that celebrate the death of packaged software? Well, cloud client vendor Wyse Technology is singing the same tune when it comes to the PC market. In this poster, this youngster seems to be realizing that desktop PCs are becoming as outdated as dinosaurs -- and wooden sailboats.

AMD And The Power Of More Cores

AMD's mantra at VMworld 2011 was aimed at highlighting advances in its server processors and how these are enabling all sorts of cloud related efficiencies. At its booth, AMD showed off its latest advancements, including VDI and Live Migration, distributed memory object caching and high availability.

Symantec's Backup Exec Lineup

Symantec gave away figurines of characters representing various features and functionality in its Backup Exec product, including (from left): Admiral Archive, Backup Beast, Data Deduplication Dude and Doctor Virtualization.

In Case You Missed It

Wyse Technology made it clear in no uncertain terms that the PC will soon be deader than Elvis, replaced by the leaner, more efficient cloud thin client. In fact, Wyse, which considers HP a key rival, claims that it enjoyed the biggest sales day in its 30-year history the day after HP announced its intention to explore a spin-off or sale of its PC business.

Trend Micro's Oxygen Bar

Navigating around the packed VMworld 2011 show floor was exhausting, but attendees could stop in at Trend Micro's booth and take advantage of an oxygen and aromatherapy bar. Scents included vanilla beam, warm cookies, and something called tranquility.

VMware's Genius Bar

Wait a minute, doesn't Apple have a Genius Bar in its retail stores?

Given the complexity of virtualization and cloud technology, VMware's geniuses might have more of a claim to the title than Apple's. Still, this doesn't look like something that would sit well with Apple fans.

Someone Pass The Off

Storage and virtualization vendor Datalink invoked mosquito imagery to illustrate the idea of data center resources being drained by inefficient management and monitoring. There were no actual mosquitoes buzzing around the VMworld 2011 show floor, but this giant depiction of one made it seem like there were.

Show Your Cloud Intensity

Sure, a lot of companies are talking about cloud computing, but Platform Computing, a vendor of cluster, grid and cloud management software, took it to the next level at VMworld 2011 by posing this somewhat philosophical question.

Intelligence Matters -- Who Knew?

Intel came to VMworld 2011 with a simple message to drum up interest in Cloud Builders, a cross-industry initiative aimed at making it easier to build, enhance, and operate cloud infrastructure. Intel Cloud Builders is relevant to enterprises, hosters, telcos, and service providers looking for transformational guidance that will yield more simplified, secure, and efficient cloud infrastructures.

Teradici Bangs The Drum For PCoIP

Teradici was on hand to tout its PCoIP protocol, which compresses, encrypts and encodes computing at the data center and transmits it ’pixels only’ across any standard IP network to stateless PCoIP zero clients. The PCoIP protocol is implemented in silicon for hardware accelerated performance, and in software in VMware View.

Hamming It Up

Dell's Share Your Story booth allows VMworld 2011 attendees to film video clips and take photos and post them to the Web for all to see. Another example of how the social networking ethos has insinuated its way into tech conferences in much the same way it's done in people's personal lives.

Virtualization Goes To Hollywood

Ever seen that movie "Sprawlbusters"? It's like "Ghostbusters," but instead of ghosts, it focuses on the cost and efficiency drain that can result from haphazard virtualization deployments.

This was just one example of Hollywood-inspired virtualization signage at Solarwinds' booth at VMworld 2011, which was a bit over the top in some cases but still managed to capture the attention of passersby.

Getting Serious About Cloud Management

CiRBA, whose Data Center Intelligence analytics software helps organizations get a handle on managing cloud and virtualization infrastructure, touted an authoritarian, no-nonsense approach at VMworld 2011.

Monster Virtual Machine Makes An Appearance

VMware says vSphere 5 virtual machines are so powerful, they're like monsters, and that notion has crystallized into an actual character that appeared onstage during VMware executive keynotes, as well as in the hallways of the show in between sessions.

The Monster Virtual Machine looks a lot like a Klondike Bar with legs, and future iterations may have to add a more fearsome appearance in order to get people's attention.

VMware Partners Embrace The Monster VM

Nexus Information Systems, a Minnetonka, Minn.-based solution provider, is one VMware channel partner that has fully embraced the Monster VMs in vSphere 5 and is bullish on the future implications they'll have for the data center.

Finding Order In The Chaos

CommVault's Simpana data protection product for virtual environments promises to help companies deal with the explosion of data and handle the expense of legacy data protection software.