I have a new job

I now have a job with VMware starting January 24th and I'm excited! My role is as a vFabric consulting software engineer within the professional services division .

Over the past 12 years I've been an independent contracting developer/architecture/designer and launched quite a few of my own products. I suppose one of the initial drivers to go contracting for me back then was that it was lucrative to do so. I now feel that the gap in remuneration between going permanent and contracting has diminished.

Another incredibly important factor was my family. Contracting can be great but the cash flow can be stressful. With 4 kids I needed more stability.

Finally, I wanted to work with more like-minded people. During my contracting years I've met some truly inspirational people along the way; but I want to meet more! This can be difficult as a contractor as you tend not to stay around long enough to work on the strategic projects and with an organisation's best people.

So, back in May last year I decided to look around for some permanent work. I choose some companies with SpringSource being one of them. I thought, if I go for a permanent job then who would I really want to work for? It is important to "tow the corporate line" of course and so I needed to ensure that this would be a no-brainer. I'm not very good at lying!

I've been using the Spring framework for quite some time and became very interested in the work of some of the SpringSource people; namely Rod Johnson and Ben Alex. Towing the line for SpringSource would not be a difficult proposition... I contacted SpringSource and ended up meeting with Guy Baldwin and the ball then started to roll. I instantly liked Guy and his technical knowledge along with his amiable personality makes him a great face of VMware/SpringSource.

'better had just get one thing straight: VMware acquired SpringSource in 2009 and so SpringSource is now a division of VMware. I'll refer to SpringSource as VMware for the rest of this blog ('hope that is politically correct!).

vFabric is the name given to VMware's Cloud Application Platform, meaning the whole stack of technologies that enable applications to live in a cloud environment. Technically speaking the cloud may not be the actual cloud as in the internet, but live behind the corporate firewall; it doesn't really matter though. What the platform is really about is enabling applications to be scaled in order to meet unanticipated demand.

My specific role is a first here in Asia/Pac. VMware have a vFabric consulting presence in the US and I'm their first consultant for them here in our region. It is exciting.

I'll continue to post my own views on software development here but needless to say, they'll be my views and not necessarily VMware's!