Hans Bernhardt started IT in 1993 at Virginia Tech Library Systems (from “DOS/Novell days” forward) and joined VMware in 2000 when the company was less than 100 people. He has since served as Support Engineer, Instructor, System Engineer, Cloud Architect.   Over the years his projects have grown from building classroom labs for 14 students, to maintaining a demo lab for a few hundred system engineers, to assisting with the creation of VMware’s first global sales enablement cloud, called “vSEL,” (Precursor to OneCloud and Hands On Labs) to serving as member of the core team of VMworld Conference Hands on Labs for 20,000+ attendees. 

Hans likes to joke that he is a “general specialist and a special generalist,” noting his propensity for presenting things in a simplified manner so that everyone can learn.  He credits this to always being surrounded by a team of incredible brains who are all willing to share.  His more recent focus has been on NSX. Though he is presently taking a “Take 3” to assist with R&D New Hire and finally (after 15 years) turn his “v101” white board (combining company history, culture, and technology) into a series of video presentations.

Hans is also very passionate about volunteering and has spent much of his personal time with the VMware Foundation and related activities that benefit the community, such as providing entertainment at summer camps for disabled children in both Virginia and California.  Hans is an avid cyclist and trail runner, with focus on tons of hill climbing to help burn his excess energy (and not drive his team insane).

One final note in today’s challenging and serious times: Hans is known for his humor, especially with rubber chickens, which for years he has used to entertain children at summer camp, thank volunteers of all kinds, keep engineers sane during challenging “it is not working” times at large events, and more. He is quite aware of the need to balance out the serious and the silly so as to help keep friends, family, and co-workers sane … and help lift their spirits as we all get through this together. He considers this an unwritten part of his job.