First Exposures

Today we toured the VMware and NetApp campuses. Jeff Goodall, our guide at VMware, explained that companies in Silicon Valley like VMware prefer using the term campus to describe their properties. I have to say, after seeing some of these campuses for myself, calling them a campus is a very suiting descriptor. I don't think there's any other term that could describe these properties better.

The VMware campus (seen above) is sprawled out over 125 acres of land. The land itself is actually owned by Stanford University, which VMware in turn leases to build on. This peace of information has a greater effect on the culture of the campus, since the land is protected and carries a sense of being somewhat removed from the rest of Palo Alto. VMware had a very resort like feel to its layout and design. It reminded me somewhat of a larger version of Curry's campus, with its integration of natural and structural elements and that feeling of being somewhat isolated, without actually being in the middle of nowhere. NetApp on the other hand would be more akin to UMass Boston's campus, with its taller buildings and a more city like vibe. NetApp felt very much "right in the middle of things", much in the same way some Boston schools do. In either case, we were clearly dealing with massive companies with a lot of buildings, land and employees.

There honestly was so much to take in today, that I couldn't possibly fit it all in one blog entry. This was only an attempt at expressing what left the biggest and most general impression on me today.