It’s this time of the year when I’m eagerly waiting on one particular email….I mean, there as several important emails throughout the day, but this one is special. I’m honored to have made it for another year as a Veeam Vanguard. This will be my fifth year! Very hard to believe how quick time flies when you are having fun!
And of course, a big shout-out to the people who make this all possible! Special thanks to Rick Vanover, Nikola Pejková, Madalina Cristil, Safiya Mohamed who are working very hard on the Vanguard and the entire Veeam 100 program.
I would be amiss for not mentioning some of the highlight of being part of the Veeam100:
- Access to test/beta version of software to run in the home-lab. I get to play with features that are yet to be released to the public, like version 12.3 before it came out.
- NFR licenses for all Veeam products, like Veeam B&R, VeeamOne.
- Friday Vanguard calls, where a bunch of us join a meeting and talk about whatever comes to mind. Might be work, current news, weather, Internet in West Virginia, or family.
- Veeam Summit; I was able to attend two summits in Prague and one in Berlin, and it was one of the best experiences! There is a good combination of top-notch sessions and fun activities as well.
- I was also able to attend VeeamON in Florida in 2024. Very good session, with lots of input from people who are actually running Veeam in their environments and are able to give first-hand experiences.
- Not gonna’ lie, the swag is top-notch!
- Slack channel for Vanguards, which is a great resource for laughter and to tip into the “Hive Mind”
If you are curious about the current list of Vanguards, it can be found here.
I will also be attending VeeamON 2025 in sunny San Diego. You can find more information about it here. I’ll be at the community booth and around, come and say hi.
Lastly, here are some post from fellow Vanguards about the 2025 program.