by
Brian Madden
It's been three months since Gabe and I joined TechTarget. So far we're finding that what we'd hoped would happen is indeed happening, namely, that we're both able to spend more time focusing on understanding and writing about the desktop and application virtualization industry.
From an operational standpoint, integrating the two companies is a lot of work. Even though The Brian Madden Company only had five employees, we still had all the "systems" that a bigger company would have. (Exchange server, multiple datacenters, credit card processing accounts, a financial system, workers' comp and unemployment accounts in five states, a 401k....) We've been making steady progress with the integration, and we hope to be more-or-less finished in the next 30 days. (By the way, BrianMadden.com is now as integrated as it's going to get. In other words, nothing noticeable is changing. Same URL. Same look-and-feel. Same logos and branding and email addresses.)
Gabe has been doing most of the heavy lifting behind the scenes (nothing new there), and I've been able to focus more of my time understanding this industry.
Before TechTarget, one of the biggest things I wished I could change was that I wanted to be able to understand the small companies in our industry just as well as I understood Citrix, Microsoft, and VMware. Unfortunately that was just not realistic because we had to do so much work to keep the lights on that I could only focus on the low-hanging fruit when it came time to pick the topics I'd write about. And that meant that I only focused on the "Big 3" vendors while the other 97 complained that I didn't cover them enough.
All that is changing now. Since joining TechTarget last November, I've actually been able to have deep-dive technical conversations with 21 vendors, including:
- Atlantis Computing
- Citrix
- Coyote Point
- HP
- InstallFree
- Jetro Platforms
- Leostream
- Microsoft (both the TS team in Redmond and the Calista team in Mountain View)
- MokaFive
- Ncomputing
- Neocleus
- Pano Logic
- Quest Software
- RES Software
- Ringcube
- Symantec
- Teradici
- Viewfinity
- Virtual Computer
- VMware
- Wyse
I've been flying around the country and driving around the Bay Area talking to all these folks, and now I have a folder full of notes from all the meetings.
This leads me to my question and the main point of this article:
What should I do with the info I learn from vendors?
I realize that having all this great info in brain-dump note format on my hard drive doesn't do any good. (And even worse, the value of these notes decreases day-by-day in this fast-moving industry.) So I want to reach out to you, the community: What should I do with all this information that I write down from meeting all these vendors?
I'm thinking that maybe I can just do a quick brain dump after each meeting. I could preface the title of the blog post with something like "Vendor Update" so it's clear what the content of that article is. (And it would make for easy searching later.) My intention would be to provide as much useful, objective data about each vendor as I could, while still throwing in my thoughts and views on everything. (After all, it's still BrianMadden.com. ;)
I guess my reason for even asking you what I should do with this info is that I'm slightly afraid people will think that I'm somehow advertising for these vendors, or that I'm writing about them because they're buying ads or something? I've always been a bit sensitive to that, and I don't want people to think that I now bow to vendors or anything.
That said, as long as I agree to look at every vendor in the space and be as equal and fair as I can, then what's the harm in that? Especially if this content is more of a brain-dump format that's in addition to the regular site content. (And again, I'll be sure to add my thoughts to the mix instead of just regurgitating the vendors' marketing message.)
So, what do you think? Is this anything that's interesting to you? (And if so, if you look at those 21 vendors I've met with so far... who should I write about first?)
Here's our "target" vendor list. Who's missing?
It's really been no problem visiting these 21 vendors in three months, and I honestly think I can get through these 100 or so vendors in a year. Here's the complete list of vendors that I'm tracking. Are there any companies that should be added?
- 2virtualize.com
- 2X Software
- Accario
- aep Networks
- Akorri
- Allot
- AMD
- AppDNA
- Appsense
- Aternity
- Atlantis Computing
- AdmitOne
- BOSaNOVA
- Ceedo
- Certeon
- Citrix
- Clear2View
- Clearcube
- Coradiant
- Courion
- DataCore
- Dell
- Desktone
- DevonIT
- eG Innovations
- Endeavors
- Enteo
- Entrigue
- Ericom
- Expand
- extentrix
- Fastscale
- Fortisphere
- GeNUIT
- Gourami
- H+H
- HOB
- hp
- IBM
- IGEL
- Immidio
- Ingenica
- InstallFree
- Intel
- Jetro Platforms
- KACE
- Kemp Technologies
- Lakeside Software
- Leostream
- LUFlogix
- Microsoft
- Miniframe
- MokaFive
- NComputing
- Neocleus
- Neoware
- Net2Display
- Nivio
- Novell
- Oracle
- Packeteer
- Panologic
- Parallels
- PremiTech
- ProPalms
- Quest
- Red Hat (Qumranet)
- Remotescan
- RES Software
- Rove
- RTO
- Scense
- Sepago
- Stoneware
- Sun
- Symantec
- Teradici
- ThinAnywhere
- ThinManager
- Thinprint
- triCerat
- TSFactory
- Unidesk
- VDIworks
- Viewfinity
- Virtual App Factory
- Virtual Computer
- visionapp
- VKernel
- VMLogix
- vmSight
- VMWare
- WorldExtend
- Wyse
- Xenocode
- XTS Inc.
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