It´s that time of the year where we open up renewals and nominations for next years class of Veeam Vanguards! Picking Vanguards is not an easy task considering how many great applications there are, but we’re happy that there’s such a huge interest in the community.
10 Years of Veeamazing Goodness
The Veeam Vanguard program has come a long way over the past 10 years, growing from a relatively modest group of Veeam fans into a globally recognized community of the world’s foremost experts on all things Veeam. In terms of membership, we’re still maintaining steady growth, but our goal has never been to have hundreds of members. By keeping a consistent number of Veeam Vanguards, we‘re able to maintain a more personalized approach where individual members know each other by name and each year is unique on who the current Vanguards are.
Rick Vanover got the idea to create the Veeam Vanguard community in 2015. After the program was created, the responsibility of keeping up the program and working with members was split between several members of our product strategy team, namely Rick, Kirsten, and Dmitrii. As time went on, it became clear that they needed a person whose sole job would be to take care of this community, and so, in 2019, I took on the position of community manager and went all in on developing our Veeamazing community, and I’ve been on this journey for almost six years.
In 2021, Veeam Community Hub was created, and Veeam Legends, another community program, was directly linked to it. That same year, an internal VeeaMVP program was added to recognize Veeam employees in customer-facing roles who go beyond their day-to-day jobs. Both of these new programs, along with the Veeam Vanguard program, were brought under the Veeam100 umbrella, since it made sense for these community programs to intermingle and share knowledge and experiences with one another.
What Does it Take to Be a Vanguard?
People often ask what they need to do to become a Veeam Vanguard. We don’t have an exact answer, since each of our members are unique and hase their own approach to how to best advocate for Veeam and spread their knowledge about our products. What all Vanguards have in common is a passion for Veeam, the ability to be proactive, and a willingness to share their knowledge and expertise with the wider community to aid in their ongoing education.
What we assess when we receive applications for the program is primarily each candidate’s overall activity over the past year in spreading awareness and knowledge related to Veeam products. This could be published articles, vlogs, conference presentations, books, and more. We also look at how you answered the questions on the application form, which must be completed and submitted to be considered for admission.
The application period lasts a month (and is open now), opening in early December and closing at the end of the first week of January. After that, we evaluate each individual application, assess all applicants, and announce the newest class of Vanguards in early March.
It´s All About Community!
Becoming a Veeam Vanguard can open doors to a whole new world if you take advantage of this opportunity. It allows you to connect with like-minded professionals from around the world, gain direct access to the Veeam Team, and secure a free pass to the Veeam100 Summit, our premier community event where Veeam100 members get exclusive access to our product strategy and product management teams.
If chosen to be a Vanguard, you’ll have the chance to interact with people from other Veeam programs like Veeam Legends and VeeaMVPs too. If you’d like to dig a little deeper, you can always find the current members of all three of these programs in the Veeam100 directory at https://community.veeam.com/p/veeam100directory.
You can see the power of our community live at the Veeam100 Summit, where conversations are sparked, new friendships are made, and memories are shared. Want to be there in 2025? If you‘ve been actively publishing content about Veeam and its products this year, try your luck and fill out the application form! I will get back to each applicant as soon as we have the results before the official public announcement of the new class for 2025 in March.
