Best of VMworld 2018 U.S. Awards: Rules and criteria
Read the updated rules, criteria and categories for the Best of VMworld 2018 U.S. Awards to find out what the requirements are for each product nomination.
TechTarget is now accepting nominations for the Best of VMworld 2018 U.S. Awards. SearchServerVirtualization.com has extended the nomination window and will accept nominations until 5 p.m. Pacific Standard Time on Friday, July 27, 2018 and will announce the winners on the VMworld 2018 show floor in Las Vegas.
Before nominating a product, please read the official rules and awards criteria.
A team of expert judges -- consisting of editors, independent analysts, consultants and users -- will evaluate the nominated products and select winners in the following categories:
Virtualization and cloud infrastructure platform
Cloud-native app development and DevOps
Agile operations and automation
Networking
Data protection
Security
Digital workspace
See the full category descriptions and judging criteria below.
A Best of Show winner will also be selected from the individual category winners; nomination forms should not be submitted for this category. If you submit nominations for multiple products, complete one form for each product. The same product may not be entered in multiple categories.
Only products that have shipped and are available between July 27, 2017 and July 25, 2018 will be considered for this year's awards. The product must be generally available before the submission period closes. Products that will not be generally available until after July 25, 2018 will be eligible for next year's awards. All product nomination forms must include a link to a public announcement or press release containing the official product GA date.
All product nomination forms must include a link to a public announcement or press release containing the official product GA date.
Nominations must also include the name and contact information for at least one customer reference. This customer must have access to the exact version of the generally available product for which the nomination is submitted -- i.e., if the nomination is for version 1.2 of the product, the customer must have access to 1.2. Customer references may be contacted by judges, but their names and contact information will not be shared or published.
Vendors must have a booth presence at VMworld, and all products must be available on the show floor should a judge request a demo. Not all nominees will be contacted directly by judges or interviewed in person.
Submissions that fail to follow rules and regulations will be disqualified.
If you have a question about the Best of VMworld Awards nomination process, email [email protected].
Best of VMworld 2018 US Awards judging criteria
Judges will evaluate products in each category based on the following areas:
Innovation: Does the product introduce new capabilities or significant improvements? Does it break new ground?
Performance: Does the product perform to a degree that it could improve overall data center operation?
Ease of integration into the environment: How easily does the product integrate with other products? Can the product operate effectively in heterogeneous environments?
Ease of use and manageability: Is the product easy to install? Are the product's functions clear and easy to learn and run? Will the product scale to accommodate growth?
Functionality: Does the product deliver as promised? Does it provide greater or more useful functionality than others in its category?
Value: Does the product represent a cost-effective solution? Can its return on investment be easily justified?
Fills a market gap: What needs does the product uniquely meet? What problems does it solve?
Best of VMworld 2018 Awards categories
Please review the category descriptions carefully before nominating products. Remember, a product can only be entered in one category. If you believe a product may be eligible for more than one category, use your best judgment in choosing a category, drawing from the examples included in the category descriptions and customer expectations. Judges have the authority to reassign products they believe were entered into the wrong category.
Virtualization and cloud infrastructure platform: Legitimate entrants include hardware products designed to enable organizations to build virtual infrastructures, including compute and storage hardware. Examples include storage arrays, private and hybrid cloud infrastructures, and hyper-converged infrastructure appliances, as well as software products designed to manage or virtualize hardware -- such as software-defined storage.
Cloud-native app development and DevOps: Legitimate entrants include software or services that enable developers to design, build and package apps, as well as products that address continuous integration, testing and delivery.
Agile operations and automation: Legitimate entrants include products that help operations teams deploy and support apps, as well as those products that monitor, track and manage workloads either in on-premises servers or in cloud environments, or that enable the migration of workloads across cloud platforms. Examples include products that monitor performance, troubleshoot workload availability, and automate workload deployment, scaling or configuration.
Networking: Legitimate entrants are hardware and software technologies that enhance networking in virtual or cloud infrastructures and/or enable and optimize virtualized networks. Examples include network switches, routers, and software or services that enhance networking in a virtual or cloud environment.
Data protection: Legitimate entrants include software products or cloud services -- such as disaster recovery as a service -- that are designed to back up, restore and replicate data and/or achieve fault tolerance in a virtual server or cloud infrastructure.
Security: Legitimate entrants monitor and protect hypervisors, cloud workloads, guest operating systems, and virtual networks and enforce security best practices.
Digital workspace: Legitimate entrants include products that secure mobile devices, applications and content while enabling mobile productivity, or software and hardware platforms that deliver or enhance the delivery of desktops and applications to various endpoints
To submit a product for consideration, please fill out the nomination form.
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