Spring is a promising time — full of optimism and rebirth. It’s also when VMware holds its annual R&D internal offsite (affectionately referred to as “RADIO”), where our engineers, developers, and researchers assemble to collaborate, inspire their peers, and brainstorm ways to solve our customers’ most pressing problems.
The first RADIO took place in 2001. There were so few attendees that we held it in a conference room and served bagels. This year’s RADIO — a hybrid event — had almost 1,400 in-person attendees (and we served much more than just bagels!). Another 11,600 VMware employees attended virtually.
Over the last 21 years, RADIO has seen:
- Almost 13,000 submissions from 20,139 different authors (2,869 were accepted)
- Presentations of 1,366 research papers
- Ideas or papers that resulted in 537 patents
Just as RADIO has grown and evolved, so have our customers’ challenges. Back in 2001, we were focused on transforming IT desktop management through the use of our pioneering virtualization technology. The problems have definitely grown in scale and complexity.
The high-level themes for RADIO 2022 included Multi-Cloud, Modern Apps, SaaS, Security, Diversity/Equity/Inclusion (DEI), and Environmental/Social/Governance (ESG). Many sessions and projects were focused on solving customer problems related to multi-cloud and containerization, including:
- Ways to handle inconsistent infrastructure APIs, database, network, and security constructs
- Risks related to security, data, and privacy
- The ability to manage and optimize spend (including by reducing energy usage)
- The difficulty and expense required to build, validate, deliver, and maintain containers
- Securing images and container interactions
- The complexity involved with managing containers across clusters and clouds
Looking back, desktop virtualization seems like child’s play!
RADIO is much more than just a company event: it is one of VMware’s greatest catalysts for innovation. Today’s market and technology — along with our customer needs — are growing and evolving daily. Along with our other innovation programs, RADIO is one way we strive to keep pace.
I’m looking forward to sharing some of the innovations that come out of 2022’s RADIO in upcoming blog posts. You’ll also see some of the fruits of this labor at VMware Explore, which will be held August 29 – September 1, 2022, at San Francisco’s Moscone Center (for US attendees). Discounted early-bird registration is open until June 13. I hope to see you there!
Best,
Kit
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