Xangati

Thanks for Tweeting the Holidays Brighter

Alan Robin, CEO, Xangati

As we wrap up our Virtual Tweet for Tots campaign, I’d like to take a moment to thank all of the participants for tweeting to make this holiday season a little bit brighter for less fortunate kids. With your help, Xangati was able to donate 250 new toys to the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Program.

We’d also like to send a big thank you to the marines we worked with at Toys for Tots.  They made it easy for us to join their program and – as you can see from our photos – they’ve already been back to pick up the toys, so that they can be delivered in time for the holidays.

Toys for Tots delivers a message of hope and community. With the participation of friends in the far-reaching virtualization community, we were able to help our local community by providing new toys to children in need – bringing two separate communities together. Many of you extended this effort – enlisting your own communities to join for additional support – such as David Marshall who put the call out in VMblog. Thank you for spreading the message further!

All of the tweets were great, but in order to give a prize you need to select a winner. So here are our top three picks for the 2012 #virtualwishlist items:

1^st Place:  @vseanclark I wish for Skynet-like virtualization capacity management systems.

2^nd Place:  @VMBlogcom To continue to make new friends within the strong virtualization community in 2012. Good people. (You’re sure right on that one!)

3^rd Place:  @matthewnorwood My virtualwishlist for 2012 is that we embrace layer 3 in virtual networking

Xangati is pleased to present our first place winner, Sean Clark, with a $50 Amazon.com gift card, and two $25 gift cards to our second and third place winners, David Marshall and Matthew Norwood. Good job, guys!

We really enjoyed all of the #virtualwishlist items, and below is a sampling of some of our other favorites in case you missed them: 

@VirtualRussel My #virtualwishlist is for another current band at VMworld!

@Bacon_is_King No Madonna at VMworld 2012

@ChrisDearden Top of my virtualwishlist let stand pass holders into the vmworld party!

@vladen I would make move to MAC if VMware Fusion had the ESX/ESXi server connection feature 

@IPP_UK My virtual Wishlist: Ubiquitous highspeed access available to all, everywhere, whether FTTP/FTTH or 4G

@Bacon_is_King putting on at least 2 sweet OC VMUG events, move to ESXi5, and of course, good thing 4 those in need.

@Bacon_is_King oh yeah, #virtualwishlist LACP for dvswitches :)

@JWVance Top of my Virtual Wishlist? 4G network coverage….everywhere. 

Thank you again! We hope that everyone’s virtual wishes come true! As this year quickly draws to a close, we wish you a safe and joyous holiday season with your loved ones. We look forward to reconnecting in the New Year!

Time to Turn a Tweet into a Toy for a Tot?

Steve Rodgers, Marketing Communications Manager, Xangati

 

The tweets have started to come in and the toys are being ordered. Xangati’s #VirtualTweet4Tots Campaign has already generated a nice list of virtual wish list items from our own virtualization community. Here are just a few of the tweets to give you a flavor of where minds are at this holiday season.

Xangati pledges to donate up to 250 toys to the program – but we need your tweets – to fill up the bins before Dec 20^th. Take the few seconds now to make sure your tweet gives a toy to a tot!

1. Tweet your virtualization wish (a product feature? A co-worker to receive special recognition? Your favorite band to play at VMworld?)
2. Include the hashtags #virtualwishlist and #virtualtweet4tots

Remember: We will publicize the full virtualization wish list at the close of the program, as well as choose the best three tweets to receive an award -- so be creative, but do it today and help a tot get a toy.

Xangati’s #VirtualTweet4Tots Campaign

Alan Robin, CEO, Xangati

The Xangati team spends a lot of time – throughout the entire year – thinking about the capabilities and features that make up all of your virtualization ‘wish lists.’ We think about things like second-by-second cross-silo visibility, higher (or deeper) levels of scalability, easy-to-use and graphically pleasing monitoring systems and so on. 

We always want to hear from customers, partners and influencers in our growing virtualization community. As we enter the holiday season, we hope to engage to learn about your plans and expectations for 2012. Just coming back from our U.S.-based turkey-stuffing-potato-gravy-pumpkin pie-infused Thanksgiving break, our feelings of gratitude and plenty are running especially high.

We know how lucky we are – not only to have had a banner year in virtualization – but also for the abundance we enjoy on a day-to-day basis. So we came up with a first-of-its-kind social media campaign to give a little bit of the abundance back. And, in typical Xangati form, we decided to make it fun and easy – something that all of our virtualization friends could participate in as well! 

It only requires 140 simple keystrokes of your time … and perhaps your imagination to meet Twitter’s space constraints. And I know you’re an imaginative group!

Here’s what you do:

• In a single tweet, include the two hashtags: #virtualwishlist and #virtualtweet4tots.
• In the same tweet, use the remaining 106 characters (remember – less in order to retweet!) to say what’s on your #virtualwishlist for 2012.

Here’s what we’ll do: 

• For every tweet sent using the above hashtags – and naming your #virtualwishlist item – Xangati will donate a new virtual toy – such as a CARS color LCD handheld game or a Disney Princess color LCD handheld game – to the Toys for Tots program.
• Following the campaign, we’ll pull together and share the complete #virtualwishlist, plus we’ll give out awards to the top three tweets! 

I am extremely excited to get this campaign underway, and Xangati has already pledged to donate up to 250 toys to the program – but we need your tweets! The highly acclaimed U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Program is now in its 65^th year of bringing joy – and a message of hope – to less fortunate children through the gift of a new toy.

Please join Xangati as we work with Toys for Tots in our First Annual #VirtualTweet4Tots Campaign! With just one tweet, you can provide a new toy to a child in need. Our campaign will end on December 20, so we hope all of our tweeps will get twittering right away!