BlogExtraHop is gearing up for VMworld at the end of August, so we thought we'd take a little trip down memory lane before we blow your minds with a glimpse of the future.
A Brief History of Virtual Reality (The Parts We Care About)
Although a recognizable concept of virtual reality (VR) has existed for almost seventy years, most of those initial forays were limited to military simulations. Let's skip ahead.
Once personal computers became a must-own in the 1980s and early 1990s, VR seemed like the obvious next step. Who wouldn't want to dive into Tron, or create a fantasy landscape of their own?
But alas, this utopic future was not to be. The pioneers of yesteryear faced two major drawbacks circa 1995: It was unspeakably expensive to build VR machines, and the Internet became a thing. VR's star dimmed as the World Wide Web rose. Although system development continued, quietly, the hype was over. (I did promise 'brief.')
AND THEN?
Twenty years passed! The media declared virtual reality dead, the public moved on to 3D and pretended it had nothing to do with VR—and then came 2012.
Drawing from technology designed to help treat cognitive and motor ailments, Skip Rizzo and Palmer Luckey came out with a VR headset dubbed the Oculus Rift. Over the next four years, other major developers such as PlayStation and Valve announced their own fancy VR headsets (Project Morpheus and the HTC Vive, respectively), with more to come.
We're in a new golden age of virtualization, and the future looks bright!
Bringing It Back To ExtraHop
We're tech nerds here. Everyone is pretty excited about all these shiny new VR devices, so much so that we're giving several away for free at VMworld 2016.
But ExtraHop has a certain kinship with virtual reality.
Wire data is to IT infrastructure management what a Vive headset is to The Lab (Valve's VR showcase game).
Just like the headset enables you to see and interact with whatever version of reality you choose, ExtraHop enables you to see and interact with the previously invisible data flowing through your environment—the very pulse of your network.
So What's Up With VMworld?
It's 2016. You should be able to explore your data virtually from anywhere, with no training or experience necessary… and ExtraHop is ready when you are.
Come visit us at VMworld (Booth #627) and you'll be on the front lines for a few exciting announcements. Time to get hands-on with the future of virtualization!
