Having fun with vExpert to employee ratios

As anyone reading this likely knows, the 2013 vExpert list was announced earlier this week (I’m honored to be a member for the second year now).

vExpert 2013 awardees announced

Shortly after, Jeramiah Dooley updated his 2012 vExpert analysis/breakdown for 2013 (I’m hoping this is a yearly tradition).

2013 vExpert Group, By the Numbers

Reading through that got me thinking about vExpert to employee ratios. To be honest, this started with thinking “I bet we have more vExperts per employee than any other company” given we’re just over 100 employees and have 8 vExperts on staff this year….and I was partly right (see below).

Note: I’m not at the same big data analysis level as Jeramiah so what’s below are static numbers….no live updates from the Google Docs source data. The total employees are based on nothing more than Google (although I didn’t take just the first result I found) but I’m happy to update if anyone has better data.

Without further ado, here’s what it looks like…

(Updated March 2014 for accuracy)

Sorted by total vExperts per company – top 10 companies

Company	# Employees	# vExperts	Ratio

VMware	13,000	54	241
EMC	60,000	17	3,529
VCE	1,500	12	125

Varrow	150	10	15
HP	331,000	8	41,375
NetApp	12,000	8	1,500
Veeam	1,000	8	125

Nutanix	212	6	35
Symantec	21,500	5	4,300
Xtravirt	50	8	10

Sorted by vExpert to employee ratio – top 10 companies

Company	# Employees	# vExperts	Ratio
Xtravirt	50	8	6.25
Varrow	105	10	15
Nutanix	212	6	35
Veeam	1,000	8	125
VCE	1,500	12	125
VMware	13,000	54	241
NetApp	12,000	8	1,500
EMC	60,000	17	3,529
Symantec	21,500	5	4,300
Dell	108,000	5	21,600
HP	331,000	8	41,375

The one I like the most…top 7 companies (most total vExperts) sorted by vExpert to employee ratio

Company	# Employees	# vExperts	Ratio
Varrow	105	10	15
Veeam	1,000	8	125
VCE	1,500	12	125
VMware	13,000	54	241
NetApp	12,000	8	1,500
EMC	60,000	17	3,529
HP	331,000	8	41,375

I think we’d all expect VMware to have the most vExperts with other virtualization focused vendors like EMC, VCE, HP, NetApp, etc. to be on this list. BUT….who would expect a relatively small UK consulting group (XtraVirt) to be right up there (kudos to them) much less a US based partner that only does business around the Carolinas (Varrow).

From where I sit, it’s an exciting time to be in this industry and at Varrow.

And…in case anyone is wondering, while there was some internal chatter inside Varrow about vExpert applications, there was no official company push – no bonuses tied to vExpert, no requirements to apply, etc. This is simply what we do and who we are — both individually (speaking for the 8 vExperts at Varrow) and also as a company.

Update March 2014: Varrow is now giving bonuses for various certifications. If you’d like more details, listen to Jason Nash (Varrow CTO) on the Geek Whisperers podcast.

http://geek-whisperers.com/2014/03/the-passion-of-the-cto-episode-37/

15 thoughts on “Having fun with vExpert to employee ratios”

Pingback: 2013 vExpert Roundup | vmMattT

Andy,

I assume you had to exclude vExperts when it was not possible to determine employee count. Guess putting “Insert Your Company Name Here” as my company got me excluded.

Interesting analysis regardless.

Thanks

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Add Panurgy to that list with a ratio of 25. 25 employees, 1 vExpert. Lol

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@Brent Quick
I actually went off the top companies as listed here so didn’t even really exclude anyone per se…just took the top listed ones.

http://blog.vmforsp.com/2013/05/2013-vexpert-group-by-the-numbers/

BUT….happy to link to your blog post if you want to write one up about the number of companies with one person that are vExperts. 🙂

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@Will Huber See my comment to Brent….happy to link your blog post if you want to highlight Panurgy. 🙂

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We just noticed we had one excluded from VCE (hopefully he’ll get his info updated soon…slacker) which would put VCE at 12 as well. That’ll put us at a 125 ratio alongside Veeam. I have a ton of respect for the top 7 companies and continue to be saddened by the glaring omission that is Cisco. They’re one short this year after all.
Thanks for the write-up Andrew!

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@Josh Atwell Cool…updated. Might you know the total # of VCE employees? 😉

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Great to see Xtravirt get a mention and we’re actually even smaller than 50 people if you take permanent employees of which 5 of the 2013 vExperts are so our ratio is actually even higher =0)

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This vExpert didn’t make the list as I’m the only one in my Healthcare organization. That being said, I lean on Varrow’s expertise from time to time as an awesome partner. Impressed to see you guys up there with the rest of the big players. I mean for a company that is mainly just in the area of the Carolinas, that’s pretty darn impressive.

Nice write up.

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