PowerCLI - What Will the Future Hold?

Posted on 3 mins read

This is just a small rant on my part, so forgive me if it comes over the wrong way.

Carter Shanklin left the PowerCLI team about at the end of April 2010. For those of you who do not know, Carter was (and still is) the PowerCLI guru. It was his project for a long time. It has evolved into a great automation tool that I use every single day. I really do not know hat I would do without it.

Since Carter left to move onto SpringSource, I have wondered what will be with this product. I am not saying that PowerCLI  is and was only a one man show (G-d help us all if this was the case), but each product has their PM and the one that “Evangelizes” it to the World.

Since April - I have repeatedly tried to find who is that Evangelist. I have not yet received an answer.

What is the effect of this you may ask? This is how I see it.

  1. From the content catalog from the upcoming VMworld there are only two PowerCLI sessions . None are being given by VMware Employees.

    Automate Application Deployments to vCloud Express
    PowerCLI Is For Administrators

    If I recall the PowerCLI sessions were one of the most popular and requested sessions at last years VMworld.

    Don’t get me wrong. I do not know the presenter of the 1st session but the second is being given by Alan Renouf and Luc Dekens, both PowerCLI masters in their own right. So I am sure that they will both be great sessions.

  2. The PowerCLI Community. I cannot remember the last time I saw a VMware employee post an answer / solution to a problem that someone asked. Luc does not really give anyone else a
    chance Smile, but still. There are bug fixes that need to be taken care of, improvements, new things that need to be added.

  3. The PowerCLI Blog - When was the last post ? March 4, 2010! If I were to have taken a 3 month Hiatus - people would lose interest in my blog, and why should this be any different for PowerCLI.

  4. I have had some questions regarding PowerCLI and an upcoming release - which I cannot really go into, but no answers to those questions either.

  5. Thanks to the dedication of all those in the PowerCLI community - and I apologize for for not naming you all - the product keeps running, and evolving. More and more things can be automated, making the lives of us vAdmins a lot easier.

My final request for this post goes to VMware. If you have not already got a replacement for Carter, get one.. Now! If you already have a replacement  - she/he needs to become more public and verbal. More blog posts, more announcements, more participation in the communities. In short Evangelize.

It would be a shame to let this product lose its momentum.