It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad VMworld!

How much virtualization can a person take? After 72 hours of VMworld, I'm starting to unravel. The last three days have been a blur of keynotes, press conferences, briefings, and press room sandwiches surely made out of cardboard. (The food here in the press center was "virtualized.")

With more than 10,000 people reportedly attending this year's show, San Francisco's Moscone center has felt at times like Times Square on New Year's Eve. I haven't even been able to park my derriere on one of the hundreds of bean bags strewn around the place:

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Yesterday, driven mad by crowds and incessant vendor ramblings about hypervisors and virtual appliances, I made a break for freedom, in a car that thin-client specialist Wyse was raffling on the show floor:

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Sadly, my demented getaway plan was foiled when I realized the smartcar was out of gas. I had to slink dejectedly back to the press center and churn out some more stories. Is there no escape from this place?

I wasn't the only one clinging to sanity at VMworld. On my way back to the press center, I glimpsed an underdressed gent parading up and down the street:

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As I got closer, I could hear him shouting, "Don't run naked!" at nervous-looking passersby. It was all part of a marketing campaign by security vendor Catbird, which is touting itself as a way for users to lock down virtual systems. Too bad some poor devil made a -- well, laughingstock of himself getting the point across:

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In all, VMworld was jolly enough to knock me out. And judging by the crowds and the bizarre marketing activity, things are just getting going. Virtualization will be a big part of all our lives for a long, long, time.

At least I'll have a while to recuperate.Have a comment on this story? Please click "Discuss" below. If you'd like to contact Byte and Switch's editors directly, send us a message.