Disclosures

Last updated: December 5, 2011.

Public disclosure is required by certain programs, events, vendors, and the FCC. Furthermore, I believe in “blogging with integrity” such that my readers should be able to trust what I write as my own opinion, and be able to discern anything promotional. I promise to make disclosures on individual pages where appropriate, and to only endorse products and services which I believe in.

My employer(s) do not and can not certify or endorse products, services, or vendors. Any implied or explicit instance of this is done by me as myself. Evaluations and testing I conduct in conjunction with my employer(s) are done in accordance with applicable procurement laws and policies. Disclosures of testing equipment, methodologies, and parameters in my writings are done so results can be reproduced and do not constitute endorsement.

I do reserve the right to change my mind about everything, as I learn more or have convincing discussions with others. I do not believe in revisionist blogging, and will not delete blog posts except under extreme circumstances. Where I encounter older posts which don’t reflect my current state of mind I will post an update to them as an addendum. I do not actively police older content of mine, so there may be conflicts. Sorry. Comments submitted to this blog become the property of Robert D. Plankers, and I do reserve the right to delete and edit comments as I see fit. That said, in practice I rarely do either, because I don’t want to stifle discussion, but I’ve been known to correct a spelling error here and there and delete offensive comments and spam. Constructive, courteous comments are always welcomed and enjoyed.

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As an independent consultant I have attended Gestalt IT’s Tech Field Day 3, Network Tech Field Day 1, and Tech Field Day 7 events, Interop 2011 on behalf of HP Networking, and the VMware Cloud Infrastructure launch, all of which had corporate sponsorship. While I received no compensation for attending, my transportation, meals, and hotel were provided. Nominal promotional materials were provided, such as, but not limited to, shirts emblazoned with vendor logos, mugs, stickers, pens, notepads, balsa airplanes, blinking rubber balls, glow-in-the-dark frisbees, fleece blankets, buttons and pins, bumper stickers, other stickers, water bottles, and random small USB flash drives containing documentation, none of which have significant value. I was explicitly not required or obligated to blog, tweet, or otherwise write about or endorse the sponsors.

As an independent consultant I have received an evaluation CTR500 from CradlePoint.

As an independent consultant I have received evaluation editions of a variety of SolarWinds, Veeam, Starwind, and VMware software, which is in use in a demonstration & test capacity in my own lab, as well as my employer’s test lab. These demonstrations and results from testing may appear on this blog and/or influence future decisions.

I have received complimentary passes to VMworld US & Europe 2010 due to being a conference speaker and my work as a blogger. My employer supplied transportation and accommodations as a training opportunity.

At times, I have attended invite-only gatherings, usually during conferences, for companies such as HP, Dell, Veeam, EMC, Isilon, VMware, TechTarget, etc. While I received no compensation for attending, food and refreshments were supplied.

I have never won anything cool from a vendor at a conference.

I have received evaluation editions of a variety of books, videos, and training courses, from Pearson, VMware Press, TrainSignal, and individual authors, many of which have been re-gifted to others or used promotionally on this site.

As part of Gestalt IT Tech Field Day 7, Veeam presented all attendees with a green wireless portable Microsoft mouse, which I continue to use when I travel, despite the fact that the side buttons are in inconvenient spots. Microsoft has apparently screwed up another thing they had nailed.

I am a VMware vExpert, which intentionally affords me preferential access to resources within VMware Corporation, including beta access, evaluation software, webcasts, and advance notification of products and services, most of which is covered under non-disclosure agreement and embargoes. My employer is also under non-disclosure, so there is nothing scandalous going on.

I have worked as an independent writer and consultant for TechTarget.

As an independent consultant I am often used as a reference, source, and sounding board by incredibly patient and kind journalists from TechTarget, Forbes, The New York Times, Capital Times, Wisconsin State Journal, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, IBM Systems, etc. This is occasionally arranged through VMware Public Relations and Marketing as part of new release publicity. I receive no compensation for this other than reminding me on bad days that I don’t suck at everything, which is invaluable.

I have worked as an independent consultant for Xangati.

As a representative of my employer, and due to prior blogging, I have received seed and evaluation hardware from Xsigo, Inc., Virtensys, Cisco, EMC, Dell, Compellent, HP, and IBM, some of which is in operation in my employer’s test lab. I use this equipment to conduct testing, the results of which may appear on this blog and/or influence future decisions.

“[Robert Plankers] is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.”

I participate in the Google AdSense and AdWords networks.

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