Following an executive around on the day of his biggest local user forum might seem like choosing a day that’s a little unusual, but Chris Norton, regional director for VMWare in Southern Africa, insists it’s not. “This is what I do normally,” he says. “I give presentations, meet with customers and talk to partners. It’s not that different.”

The difference today is most of them are in one place for VForum 2010: Vodaworld in Johannesburg. Over 1 200 delegates have gathered to hear VMWare’s vision for the future of virtualisation and cloud computing.