Best of VMware Explore Awards: Rules and criteria
Read the updated rules, criteria and categories for the Best of VMware Explore 2023 Awards to find out what the requirements are for each product nomination.
TechTarget's Best of VMware Explore Awards recognize the most outstanding products at VMware's annual user conference.
TechTarget is now accepting nominations for the Best of VMware Explore 2023 Awards. The nomination window will remain open until 5 p.m. PST on Wednesday, July 12, 2023. The winners will be announced at the show by searchVMware. 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:
- Business continuity and data protection.
- Multi-cloud and app modernization.
- Security, networking and edge.
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 cannot be submitted for this category. If you nominate multiple products, please complete one form per product. The same product may not be entered in multiple categories.
Only products that have a booth presence on the show floor will be considered for this year's awards. The product must be on display at the show. Entrants must make a product demonstration available to judges, who will visit the vendor's booth at the show to evaluate the product. If a product demonstration is unavailable at the time our anonymous judge visits the booth, the product will not be considered for an award.
This year's event will be held in person in Las Vegas; vendors must be a sponsor and have a presence on the show floor.
Submissions that fail to follow rules and regulations will be disqualified.
If you have questions about your eligibility or the Best of VMware Explore 2023 Awards nomination process, email [email protected].
Best of VMware Explore 2023 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 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 VMware Explore 2023 Awards categories
Please review the category descriptions carefully before nominating products. Remember, you may only enter a product in one category. If you believe a product is 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 entered in the wrong category.
Business continuity, data protection and storage
Eligible entrants include hardware and software products or cloud services that are designed to store, manage, back up, restore and replicate data in private or public cloud environments. Examples include storage hardware appliances, arrays, backup software, data management software, hyper-converged infrastructure and disaster recovery services.
Multi-cloud and app modernization
Eligible entrants include hardware and software products that enable organizations to build on-premises virtual infrastructures, support multiple cloud environments and update legacy applications to run on cloud-native frameworks. Examples include private and hybrid cloud infrastructure, appliances and software products that manage or virtualize hardware as well as container management and orchestration software.
Security, networking and edge
Eligible entrants include hardware and software products that monitor and protect hypervisors, guest OSes and enforce security protocols. These could also be products that enhance networking in virtual or cloud networks and/or optimize virtual networks. Entrants should enable organizations to build edge computing infrastructure. Examples include software defined networking, distributed cloud software, edge platforms, firewalls and threat detection tools.
To submit a product for consideration, please fill out the nomination form.
