Being a Nutanix Technology Champion, NTC in short, is something special. Let me, throughout this post, try and provide you with some insights on what to expect once you’re ‘in’, so to speak. Although I can’t compare it to any of the other ‘programs’ out there, since this is the first time my efforts got recognized in such a way, I’m confident that they’re doing a more than decent job in keeping their community members up to speed with all that is going on within the company and everything that surrounds it.
Let’s start at the beginning
Before I continue, if you’re not familiar with the NTC program, have a look here. It’s comparable to the VMware vExpert and Microsoft MVP programs, to name a few.
My relationship with Nutanix started late 2013, early 2014 when I was invited to an internal Blogger session leading up to the opening of their Dutch, Hoofddorp based, Headquarters. It was there where I was first introduced to the Nutanix vision, ambition and strategy for the years to come, all this coming straight from Dheeraj Pandey (Nutanix Founder and CEO) himself.
Since I was still fairly new to hyperconvergence and web-scale technology in general, the first few months after that where interesting to say the least. I had the opportunity to learn about Nutanix, the company, their journey, the people and last, but most certainly not least, the technology involved. Fast forward to today I have written several blog posts on Nutanix, their product portfolio and web-scale technology in general, which of course, have also contributed to me being elected an NTC, for which I’m grateful still.
That I’m surrounded by a special group of fellow NTC’s is an understatement. It has only been a few months, but I can honestly say that the NTC group is build up out of some very smart and ambitious folks, the level of expertise is extremely high, and it’s hard to keep up with some of the guys in there, seriously. So not only am I constantly learning about what’s going on and what’s new with Nutanix, I’m also picking up a lot of know-how with regards to web-scale, storage, hypervisors and so on and so forth, which is a big bonus.
The NTC program in some more detail
The program itself is outstanding (a big thumbs up to Laura Whalen and all others involved), again, I have nothing to compare it with, but as far as I am concerned it’s top notch. Of course there will always be room for improvement, but that’s one of the fun sides as well, keep evolving. Internal communication is timely and structured and there are several ways to get and keep in touch with everybody within Nutanix, no exceptions. This also includes the online Nutanix NEXT community, which is freely accessible to anyone how would like to dig a bit deeper when it comes to web-scale technology, hyperconvergence or the Nutanix portfolio in general. As an NTC you’ll have access to a few private .NEXT discussion sections as well.
Meetings are casual yet organized and since Nutanix is well known for their innovative and adventurous approach, there is always plenty of new information to share, I can tell you. Most of which is under NDA of course, but still. For example, you might have (accidently) heard about something called the Nutanix CE edition? Or the recently introduced NPX program? Well, there is more where that cam from :) But remember… you didn’t hear it from me.
Not that long ago we had our first NTC quarterly meeting where, again, some interesting announcements and insights were shared and given. You can probably imagine that with NTC’s from around the globe is relatively hard to schedule a meeting / webinar that suits everybody. No mater which time zone or hour they pick, it will always be in the middle of the night, early in the morning or right in the middle of a work day for somebody (me included), almost guaranteed. Knowing that, it was good to see that almost all NTC’s were present to hear what Howard Thing, Dheeraj Pandey and others had to say!
You’re well taken care of
As mentioned, it can be hard to get agenda’s aligned, which might mean you will have to occasionally miss out on a meeting. But none of that with the NTC program. They will do their absolute best to get you on board even if it means doing a private one to one session to get the news / message across. One to one meaning, me, on my own at my private home desk at one side and three Nutanix employees (and not just the techies) on the other side. And it was early, for them anyway :) This, at least to me, shows that they are really dedicated in making this program a success no matter what!
The only disappointment for me personally is that I won’t be able to attend the first Nutanix .NEXT conference held in Orlando (Miami Beach) Florida, in June this year. Some special arrangements have been made with regards to the NTC program and it’s members, pre, during and post the event. Yes, they thought of everything. Unfortunately, it will be in the same week as E2EVC Berlin, which has been in my agenda for a while now. But who knows, maybe .next year.
Community driven
The community surrounding Nutanix, which reaches far beyond ‘just’ the NTC’s, is (more than) impressive as well. There is a whole bunch of highly skilled Nutanix enthusiasts out there all willing to share their thoughts and knowledge in various ways, always ready to jump into a discussion, being critical when needed, keeping the company ‘honest’ as they like to call it. And let’s not forget about the Nutanix internals. For example, a lot of the current Nutanix employees (they too are closely involved when it comes to the NTC program by the way) are, almost without exception, VCDX certified, vExpert, MVP, Citrix CTP, RSVP, a User Group Leader, a former Citrix or VMware employee, known as community leaders or technically skilled and certified in some other way. Many useful, interesting and objective blogs, articles and Tweets even (let’s just leave the FUD battle out of it for now shall we?) have been written by this group of specialists and it’s not going to stop any time soon.
Want to know more?
If your interested in what’s trending with regards to the NTC community you can use the #NutanixNTC hash tag to look for NTC related tweets, or simply use #Nutanix for all other Nutanix and Web-Scale related news. Another way of getting in touch or to follow what is going on would be to use Joep Piscaer’s (fellow NTC) Twitter list holding all 20 NTC’s. Just subscribe and you won’t miss a Tweet.
Finally, if you are into Webscale, Hyperconvergence, or you just want to know more about the community surrounding Nutanix, their portfolio, the NPX or NTC program itself, feel free to contact Laura Whalen, see is the Chief Community Officer and Geek Scout at Nutanix and will gladly answers any of the questions you might have. You can contact her at [email protected], find her on Twitter at @Laura_Whalen or you can drop me a line personally on Twitter using the handle @BasvanKaam And remember, the NTC program is annual, so if you are interested don’t forget to apply. They will let you know when registration opens :)