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David Davis, owner of HappyRouter.com and VMwareVideos.com, interviewed

I got this email and later the DVD of this 2 CD ESX Server training video, from David's team. I was prompted to chat up with David and ask about who he was and all the energy he puts in writing the video tutorials.


David is a soft-spoken and a highly talented individual. It was fun chatting up with you, David!

Who is David?

David Davis (CCIE #9369, VCP, CWNA, MCSE, CISSP, Linux+, CEH) has been in the IT industry for 15 years. Currently, he manages a group of systems/network administrators for a privately owned retail company and authors IT-related material in his spare time. He has written hundreds of articles, six video training courses – including the Train Signal VMware ESX Server video training series. His websites are: VMware Videos.com and Happy Router.com

Answers to questions-

  • Tell us a bit about yourself, David?

I have been in the IT industry about 15 years and have served as a network admin, server admin, and Infrastructure Manager. In my spare time, I have written over 300 articles and created six different IT video training course. Two of my most popular video training courses are my VMware Server course and my VMware ESX Server Course. I am very excited about my newly updated website, HappyRouter.com and my new VMware-related website, VMwarevideos.com!

  • What is your day job?

I manage a group of system and network administrators at a $1B retail company in the USA. My group managed all IT Infrastructure for the company. I have spent most of my time developing our VMware Infrastructure and Cisco network.

  • Where do you find all that time and passion to make tutorials?

Between my personal life and my full time job, it is tough to find the time to create article and video content but I enjoy doing it and I always find the time to develop some content. During my full time job where I work with VMware technology, I always run across some feature that I feel that I just have to share with the world.

  • What prompted you to make the VMware ESX 3.x tutorials?

I had created a number of videos before the ESX Server video series including Windows XP, A+, Linux+, Wireless / CWNA, ISA Server, Microsoft Virtual Server, and VMware Server. There was a large demand from Train Signal customers for a VMware ESX Server course and, with all the previous experience under my belt, I felt that I could develop a quality VMware ESX Server course that would be very popular. As it turns out, it has been one of the most popular Train Signal courses of all time!

  • How is it different from the others?

To me, what was different about this course vs all the other courses I have made is how all the things we learn about are based on scenarios that mimic real world companies and my real world experiences implementing and administering VMware ESX. While other courses I have created are also based on real world scenarios, I feel that the VMware ESX Server course is based on much larger enterprise company scenarios and, because of this, this course really “steps up a notch” in scale, when compared to my previous courses.

  • Will you be doing a Citrix XenServer and Microsoft Hyper-V tutorials as well?

Today, I don’t have definite plans to develop these courses. I would wait and see how the virtualization market place changes and what Microsoft’s virtualization product looks like once it is fully released and more mature. I think that these are definitely video training topics to consider in the future!

  • Is it easy to cope with all the changes with disruptive technologies as Virtualization?

I don’t feel that virtualization is disruptive at all. While it is certainly a huge change, I think it is a huge change for the better. Once you have virtualized your data center, administration of your server farm is so much easier and you have the door opened for so much more flexibility. It is an amazing technology that is really changing the future of everyone’s IT Infrastructure.

  • What do you think the future of virtualization is? Would we even care about it by 2010?

I think that the future of virtualization is enormous! While no one can tell what will happen with the big 3 virtualization players (Microsoft, Citrix/Xen, and VMware), I have no doubt that the IT Pro and businesses all over the world will just continue to benefit more and more from the power of virtualization. By 2010, yes, I think we will still care about virtualization and I believe that just about every IT Admin will be using it! (but it may come in a different form that it does today)

  • Can we expect something else from your tutorials in the coming weeks/months?

Watch for more of my VMware virtualization articles and videos at:

www.VMwareVideos.com

www.Petri.co.il/virtualization.htm

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