After two full days of VMworld 2009 I have some impressions on the show. The first is that desktop and/or client virtualization is a big deal. Lots of people are here to learn what the latest is and figure out how to do it when they get home. I would say that this wave is bigger than last year.

In my own field of enterprise applications there is a broader acceptance that the performance is good. This is true due to better performance with vSphere, new processor virtualization features in latest generations, and more customers talking about successful implementation of Exchange, SQL, SAP, Oracle, etc. More discussion around best practices and reference architectures are happening than in the past, which seems like a change to me.

The competitive questions around other virtualization options is much lower this year. At least I haven't heard as many questions or as much discussion about it.

These final few things are less significant: More smokers outside the entrance, fewer giveaway bouncy balls, more giveaway t-shirts, and no racecars at the big VMworld party.

Todd