Hi All
I had an interesting discussion with two local IT companies that used to attend the local VMUGs but requested last year to be taken off the contact list. They had their partner status removed so that they could not sell VMware product despite all the services work they were doing in the 1-100 user space. As such both companies have ceased providing VMware solutions and have migrated all their customers to Hyper-V solutions or Azure Cloud. They don't want to have to get licenses through the likes of Dell or HP as these organisations then come in and try to take over the customer.
I see the removal of TechNet, VMTN and these constant partner agreement changes are part of these larger companies looking at more centralised approach where they only want to have to deal with larger organisations. I remember Citrix did this a few years ago and we all saw how well that went for them.
As hypervisors become ubiquitous and the focus is more around the management stack, there is even a greater need for VMware to support the contractors and influencers with access to the ever increasing product set to better inform themselves to then better inform their clients.
The approach taken in the past where decissions are made without consultation, alienates the very people VMware are trying to get to evangelise their product set. VMware is great with putting out their surveys, why don't they put out a survey on this issue?
I know I ramble but 'CMON get with it VMware, show some leadership here and bring back VMTN to support those who have supported you.