Wow, in a move that many virtualization community members didn't see coming from a mile away, it is a sad day to report that a community fan favorite, VMware's chief technology officer Steve Herrod, is leaving VMware for a new opportunity at a Silicon Valley venture capital firm. 

He confirmed the news himself in a blog post on VMware's CTO blog Wednesday:

And so today it is with both excitement and sadness that I announce my transition from VMware to a new adventure as managing director at General Catalyst, a premier venture capital firm jointly based in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Palo Alto, California. 

Herrod is joining the firm’s Palo Alto office as a managing director investing and supporting early-stage enterprise companies.  His primary focus will be finding, supporting, and developing great technical entrepreneurs as they "build the products and companies that they’ve always dreamt of building."  

In the same blog post, Herrod discussed how virtualization has evolved over the last decade:

I am amazed by the changes our industry has undergone over the last decade. Virtualization has become the default technology upon which the majority of the world’s server applications run. What’s more, virtualization’s impact is rapidly extending into storage, networking, security, and every other aspect of the modern datacenter. The resulting “software-defined datacenter” is clearly the architecture of the future, enabling the efficient private, public, and hybrid clouds that are becoming part of every company’s IT strategy.  

He will definitely be missed by many after serving an 11 year tenure with the virtualization giant.  But VMware users fear not, it sounds like Herrod will still be helping VMware out in some capacity, saying he will have an ongoing role as a technical advisor with the company.  No, that isn't quite the same I realize, but hopefully he can continue to positively influence the company in some small way.

On a personal note, I've had the good fortune to meet Steve now and again at various functions over the years as both a reporter and as a member of the vExpert group.  And he has always been a friendly and welcoming person.  He will be missed.  And I'll also miss his valuable insight in the VMblog Prediction Series each year.  When he submitted his prediction piece for 2013, I had no idea it would be his last... so if you haven't already read it, please check out his final prediction as the CTO of VMware.

Best of luck on your new gig Steve!  And thanks for everything that you've done for VMware and the virtualization community.