Joshua Townsend
Product Marketing Manager
Profile
Joshua Townsend
Product Marketing Manager
Product Marketing Manager | Cloud & Virtualization Strategist | Non-Profit Executive | Community Service Advocate
Blending 20+ years in tech leadership spanning technical and product marketing, evangelism, management, and hands-on architecture and implementation of datacenter and SaaS technologies. I’m driven by creativity, curiosity, and a passion to act as a servant-leader as seen in my dedicated service as a volunteer firefighter/EMT and President of the non-profit volunteer fire company in my community.
Resume
Resume
Education
Messiah College
BA: Political Science & International Relations
1997-2001
Employment
VMware
Product Marketing Manager
12.2013 - 01.2024
As a Product Marketing Manager at VMware, I spearhead the market positioning and messaging for VMware Cloud Foundation, fueling awareness and engagement across a diverse spectrum of stakeholders – from industry influencers to customers and partners. My focus encompassed VMware’s full-stack hyperconverged infrastructure solutions tailored for Private, Hybrid, and Multi-Cloud deployments, with a particular emphasis on VM and Kubernetes-based application environments supporting modern apps, including Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) workloads.
Key Contributions:
- Crafted and articulated compelling product positioning and messaging that distinguishes VMware offerings in the marketplace as products converted from perpetual to subscription and SaaS.
- Orchestrated successful product launches and campaigns by coordinating efforts across product management, engineering, corporate marketing, and creative teams.
- Designed and created marketing content and collateral, ranging from presentations to published articles, that resonates with target audiences and fortifies our brand narrative.
- Fostered synergies with OEM, go-to-market (GTM), and technology partners to align joint messaging and sales motions globally.
- Empowered sales teams, channel partners, and technology partners with tailored product messaging and enablement content, amplifying our market reach and resonance.
- Translated technical product specifics into clear business benefits, supported by data-backed claims to support customer decision-making.
- Deepened customer insights through meticulous market research, segmentation analysis, and direct engagements, shaping our thought leadership, analyst engagement, and industry dialogue.
- My approach intertwines technical acumen with market-centric strategies, enabling me to translate complex product details into relatable value propositions and drive measurable market engagement.
- Progression: Technical Marketing Manager, Sr. Technical Marketing Architect, Product Marketing Manager
Clearpath Solutions Group
Virtualization Practice Manager
02.2012 - 11.2013
Responsible for ensuring technical excellence in all things VMware-related across sales, marketing, and professional services efforts. As the lead SME for VMware and cloud technologies, I acted in the role of a technical enabler, evangelist, and leader to Clearpath’s outstanding team of consultants and engineers, as well as customers in the Washington DC metro area, Baltimore, Boston, and Atlanta. Specific accomplishments include:
- Determining customer requirements and designing VMware-based solutions architectures spanning VMware’s product portfolio from the vCloud Suite to the Horizon Suite to meet the functional and business requirements of a range of clients of various sizes and across verticals.
- Developing technical marketing collateral, including product and services slicks, sample service offerings SOWs, and technical presentations for customer briefings, industry events, and publishing on corporate blog.
- Educating customers and internal staff on VMware product offerings and best practices for combining solutions to create private and hybrid clouds.
- Mentoring and providing quality assurance oversight to professional services engineers during technical engagements to ensure that VMware solutions were delivered in accordance with best practices and professionalism.
- Performed hands-on technical implementation, troubleshooting, and remediation on complex client projects requiring high-touch or strategic vision.
Tiber Creek Consulting
IT Manager
02.2009 - 02.2012
Architected, implemented, and maintained a 150-server, 100% virtualized environment supporting Exchange, SQL, SharePoint, Active Directory, and a mixed Microsoft and Adobe development environment. Oversaw operation of and provided consultative architecture, systems management, and troubleshooting support to our Department of Defense (DoD) clients’ environments in the Pentagon and National Guard Bureau running VMware-virtualized OLTP and OLAP SQL workloads, web portals, and data analysis environments.
IronBrick Associates
Principal Virtualization Consultant
10.2008 - 02.2009
Planned, designed and implemented enterprise solutions involving VMware, NetApp, and Microsoft Technologies. Experience with the design, architecture and implementation of Virtual Infrastructure environments using VMware VI, Virtual Center, Lab Manager, DRS and HA. Designed and Implemented Microsoft Active Directory Environments. Experienced in Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SQL and Microsoft Share Point implementations and migrations. Hands-on experience with iSCSI, NFS and Fibre Channel protocols on NetApp storage.
Approva
Global IT Manager
09.2005 - 08.2008
Led an enterprise-wide virtualization effort, overseeing and personally completing vendor/hardware qualifications, architecture/design, installation, configuration, migration and documentation. Reduced the company’s server hardware footprint by 60% leading to savings in power and cooling. Leveraged highly available VMware Virtual Infrastructure environment to improve server availability, reduce workload for IT staff, and automate server deployment for various business units. Environment supported both production and development environments containing hundreds of servers running SQL, IIS, Exchange, SharePoint, SAP, Oracle, PeopleSoft, and Approva’s BizRights governance, risk, and compliance software.
Security Clearance
US Department of Defense (DoD) Secret Security Clearance
Certifications
VMware
- VMware Certified Advanced Professional 5 – Datacenter Design (VCAP5-DCD)
- VMware Certified Advanced Professional 5 – Desktop Design (VCAP5-DTD)
- VMware VCP5 Desktop (VCP5-DT)
- VMware Certified Professional on vSphere 5 (VCP5)
- VMware Certified Professional (VCP) on vSphere 4
- VMware Certified Professional on Virtual Infrastructure 3 (VCP3)
- VMware Sales Professional (VSP)
- VMware Technical Sales Professional (VTSP)
Microsoft
- Microsoft Specialist: Windows 7, Configuring
- Microsoft® Certified Solutions Associate:Windows Server 2008
- Microsoft Certified Professional
- Microsoft® Certified IT Professional:Enterprise Administrator on Windows Server2008
- Microsoft® Certified Technology Specialist:Windows Server 2008 Network Infrastructure, Configuration
- Microsoft® Certified Technology Specialist:Windows Server 2008 Applications Infrastructure, Configuration
- Microsoft® Certified Technology Specialist:Windows Server 2008 Active Directory, Configuration
Amazon Web Services
- Amazon Web Services Business Professional Accreditation
- Amazon Web Services Technical Professional Accreditation
Pragmatic Institute
- PMC-III
- Foundations, Market, Launch
CompTIA
- CompTIA Security+ 2008
Published Works
- Author: Virtualization 2.0 for Dummies (2015)
- Blogger on VMware’s public blog site (2013-2023).
- Creator and blogger of https://vmtoday.com, sharing virtualization news, views, and lessons learned with the greater IT community.
- Presenter at numerous industry events: VMworld, Dell Technologies World, EMC World, VMware User Group, and VMware vForum. I regularly received high scores from attendees for quality of presentations.
Portfolio
Portfolio
References
References
Jason Shiplet
Working with Josh at Clearpath Solutions Group has been extremely rewarding for me over the past 18 months. He has acted as a technical mentor, as well as helping me navigate the…
Steve Miller
Although brief, my time spent working with Josh was very enjoyable and educational. Josh has an experts understanding of everything Microsoft and VMware and has no problem teaching what he knows. He’s…
Daniel Fedick
Josh is an adventurer. He is very well versed in Virtualization, Microsoft and many storage vendor’s products. He knows how to handle complex technical problems as well as how to deal with…
Contacts
Contacts
Let’s Keep In Touch
For a quick contact scan the QR code to get all my info
Volunteering
Volunteering
Executive Leadership
Ashburn Volunteer Fire and Rescue Department
President
01.2019 - Present
Chief executive officer (volunteer position) for a multi-million dollar, volunteer-led non-profit organization with a direct mission to provide front-line life and property-saving emergency response to our citizens. As the company’s president, I invest my nights and weekends in setting strategic goals, executing the day-to-day management of the business, and collaborating with local government officials to ensure that the highest quality of service is being provided to our constituents. I lead front and back-office efforts, including development, fundraising, marketing, grant-writing, advocacy, human resources, IT, and government relations. I work hand-in-hand with the fire chief and other operational staff to ensure the efficient delivery of life-saving services to the residents of the Ashburn, VA and greater Loudoun County, VA community. I am a tireless advocate for and strive to enable a culture of pride, shared ownership, creativity, collaboration, accountability, and safety across both operational and administrative sections of the department.
Progression: Elected to 3-year term on Board of Directors (Dec 2016), Elected Vice President (December 2017), Elected President (December 2018)
Operational Leadership
Ashburn Volunteer Fire and Rescue Department
Captain - Firefighter/EMT
01.2015 - Present
- Currently hold the rank of Captain, leading a crew of firefighters and EMTs through training, development, and all-hazards emergency response.
- Established command of emergency scenes as first-arriving officer, making tactical decisions to improve the outcome of the incident.
- Demonstrated commitment to the Department’s core values through proactive team collaboration, integrity in training practices, professional conduct, and exceptional service delivery.
- Mentored new officers in both operational and people-management skills.
Awards and Recognition
- Fire Instructor of the Year (2022) – Loudoun County Fire Rescue
- Firefighter of the Year (2016) – Ashburn Volunteer Fire and Rescue Department
- Rookie Firefighter of the Year (2015) – Ashburn Volunteer Fire and Rescue Department
- Top Student (2015) – Loudoun County Combined Fire Rescue System Firefighter Academy
Fire Service Certifications
- Chief Fire Officer IV (NFPA 1021-14) – Virginia Department of Fire Programs, Feb 2023
- Fire Officer III (NFPA-1021-14) – Virginia Department of Fire Programs, Jul 2022
- Recruitment and Retention Coordinator – International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC), Feb 2022
- Incident Safety Officer – National Fire Academy, Dec 2021
- Fire Instructor II (NFPA 1041-12) – Virginia Department of Fire Programs, Dec 2021
- ICS-400: Advanced ICS For Command & General Staff For Complex Incidents And Multi-Agency Coordination – Virginia Department of Fire Programs, Dec 2021
- Mass Casualty Incident Management I & II – Virginia Department of Health, May 2021
- Fire Officer II (NFPA 1021-14) – Virginia Department of Fire Programs, Mar 2020
- ICS-300: Intermediate ICS for Expanding Incidents – Virginia Department of Fire Programs, Nov 2018
- Fire Officer I (NFPA 1021-14) – Virginia Department of Fire Programs, Jun 2018
- Fire Instructor I (NFPA 1041-12) – Virginia Department of Fire Programs, Apr 2018
- Emergency Medical Technician – National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians, Sep 2017 (Exp Aug 2025)
- Driver/Operator Pumper Certification Course (NFPA 1002-14) – Virginia Department of Fire Programs, Feb 2017
- Crew Leader, Virginia Department of Fire Programs, Feb 2017
- Rope Rescue – Level 1 – Virginia Department of Fire Programs, Dec 2016
- Introduction to Technical Rescue – Virginia Department of Fire Programs, Aug 2016
- Vehicle Rescue – Level 1 – Virginia Department of Fire Programs, Nov 2016
- MAYDAY, FIREFIGHTER DOWN – Virginia Department of Fire Programs, Feb 2016
- FIREFIGHTER I / II (NFPA 1001-13) – Virginia Department of Fire Programs, Feb 2016
- Hazardous Materials Awareness & Operations (NFPA 472-13) – Virginia Department of Fire Programs, May 2015
- Emergency Vehicle Operations (Class I-IV) – Virginia Department of Fire Programs, Sep 2015
- ICS 100, 200, 700, 800 – Federal Emergency Management Agency, Jan 2015