2012 vExpert Group, By the Numbers

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In case you didn’t know it, I’m a stats nerd.  I love spreadsheets, I love pivot tables, I love statistics, I love data mining.  When I worked at Peak 10, my team would roll their eyes every time I’d pull up another Excel sheet to walk through a problem, and our vendors would scowl knowing that they couldn’t get anything past my models…

vmw_logo_vmware-expert_250x100Knowing this, there wasn’t any way I could resist pulling down the PDF announcement of the 2012 VMware vExpert group and playing around with the data!  It’s still not complete, and I’ll update the findings as people update their information, but here’s my first round of observations:

  1. The vExpert group is still predominately US-based, but the gap is shrinking.  I’m still working through populating the final data, but the number of new vExperts from outside the US is fantastic.  It really reflects the growth of VMware internationally.
  2. 349 of 433 vExperts are on Twitter!  I’ve created a Twitter list that automatically updates whenever one of the vExperts updates their information, you can see it here and follow it if you’d like.
  3. 298 of 433 vExperts indicate some on-line presence like a website, online profile or blog.
  4. 180 of 433 vExperts are new for 2012, and 93 vExperts from the 2011 list weren’t invited back.
  5. There are 83 (!!!) vExperts who have made the list every year since 2009.
  6. There are 64 vExperts who have made the list for three years.
  7. There are 106 vExperts making the list for a second time.
  8. 2 vExperts are returning to the list after an absence of 2 years!
  9. 18 vExperts are returning to the list after an absence of 1 year.

351 of 433 vExperts have their employer publicly available, and the breakdown looks like this:

    • VMware – 33 vExperts (16 new)
    • EMC – 24 vExperts (6 new)
    • Dell – 6 vExperts (1 new)
    • NetApp – 6 vExperts (0 new)
    • Veeam – 6 vExperts (2 new)
    • PQR – 5 vExperts (2 new)
    • VCE – 5 vExperts (1 new)
    • Quest Software, Varrow, Xtravirt Ltd, HP – 4 vExperts each (1, 2, 2 and 1 new, respectively)
    • 23 companies with 2 vExperts
    • 205 companies with a single vExpert

One of the new things introduced to the 2012 vExpert mix was the three different paths that could be taken to gain inclusion in the group, Evangelist, Customer and Partner.  There isn’t enough information to draw any conclusions yet, but I’m interested to see which path the new vExperts took to get in.  I’d also be interested in seeing how many people applied for each path and to compare that to the numbers accepted, but VMware would have to release that information since it’s not publicly available.