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January 21, 2008 4:30 PM PST

VMware-Microsoft battle taking shape

by Ina Fried

That Microsoft has its sights set on the virtualization market dominated today by VMware is nothing new. However, the announcements Microsoft made on Monday show that the company is putting a tremendous amount of resources toward moving from vision to reality, analyst say.

Microsoft's approach of having a data center that can respond dynamically to business needs, while still years off, is compelling, said Forrester Research analyst Frank Gillett. Virtualization is a key component that can take the Dynamic Systems Initiative of a few years ago and make it approach reality.

Now, Microsoft is far from alone in this vision. I've heard similar talk over the years from Hewlett-Packard, Veritas (now Symantec), IBM and others.

But clearly a fire has been lit under Microsoft, which was comparatively late to the virtualization game, despite its 2003 purchase of Connectix.

It should be an interesting battle between Microsoft and VMware.

"VMware has a first mover advantage and a head start," Gillett said. "But Microsoft's model-based approach to it is a more appealing ideal."

That ideal, though, will take some time.

"We believe VMware has a broader product portfolio and it will take some time for Microsoft to match the breadth, probably until 2010," Gillett said.

The moves come as virtualization is entering the mainstream on the server side and a looming presence on the desktop. Forrester said a recent survey showed half of businesses using server virtualization currently, with two-thirds planning to by next year. On the desktop, things are more nascent, with just over a quarter of businesses saying they either are using PC virtualization or will do so in the next 12 months.

During her years at CNET News, Ina Fried has changed beats several times, changed genders once, and covered both of the Pirates of Silicon Valley. These days, most of her attention is focused on Microsoft. E-mail Ina.
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Won't be interesting at all
by The_Decider January 21, 2008 8:10 PM PST
By the last specs I read from MS, whenever the vaporware is released it won't be able to compete with VMWare circa 2006, and VMWare is not standing still.

Besides the MS pateented issues like poor performance and freshman CS security mistakes, the biggest question is, will MS support other OS's?

If they don't it will be yet another 'me-too' failure that MS has perfected over the past few years.

If they want a change of being a legitimate contender, they will have to at least match VMWare feature for feature and be reasonably priced.

Anyone want to bet that this will be the case?
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VMWare is hyped
by jc94107 January 21, 2008 9:01 PM PST
VMWare is hyped
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VMWare is hyped
by jc94107 January 21, 2008 10:01 PM PST
We spent so much on VMWare at work. They require lots of resources--big iron servers, expensive consulting, plus expensive employees doing server admin, and still these virtual instances are not so stable. Reboot reboot. It's so risky not having real servers. Our business users are really upset. We got a new CIO who drank the VMWare kool-aid and didnt assess the return and risk. Folks, don't believe the hype.
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Perhaps
by The_Decider January 22, 2008 6:51 AM PST
Your company should hire someone who knows what they are doing.

It is stable if properly configured and if you rolled it out to customers without having done that, that is the fault of your company, not VMWare.
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Depends on usage.
by Penguinisto January 22, 2008 9:15 AM PST
I have three ESX servers going right now... they deliver a marginal increase in hardware efficiency (no VM excels in that arena, hype be damned), and some degree of High Availability.

[i]"It's so risky not having real servers."[/i]

It doesn't have to be... I keep snapshots of the more important VM instances across multiple servers, and they all feed off of a highly-redundant SAN rig. If one machine dies or a VM instance on it does, another can be quickly brought to life. No downtime while waiting for hardware, even w/ a 4-hour delivery contract.

Personally, I believe in balance. VM's are great for some things (build servers, scratch servers, migration aids, rollout servers, test servers), but lousy (and IMHO dangerous) for others (user authentication, source code repositories, backup/DR servers... critical stuff like that).

The problem with management sometimes is that they just got done spending a boatload of cash on a solution, so they try and justify it as much as possible, by parking (literally) everything they can on a VM. It's idiocy, and it will come back to bite them (and anyone under 'em dumb enough to agree to help do it).

Risk can't be removed, but it can be minimized on VMs (see also SAN's, multiple snapshots spread across physical servers, etc). It just takes a bit of forethought and planning to get it right.

/P
Another MSFT Catastrophe in the Offing
by Sumatra-Bosch January 21, 2008 10:25 PM PST
After 1255 delays, MSFT will issue its own virtualization crapware and, per usual, the user community will be left flat on their backs, moaning and holding their faces and stomachs and wretching violently. 'Research firms' you've never heard of will spring up like Jiminy Cricket chirping about the superiority of a product no one's been able to make work and CNET reporters will quote their 'analyses' knowing Paul Allen gave them their phony baloney jobs.

Steve Ballmer will go on those pathetic cable tv business interview shows and offer to bite through a truck tire to prove how passionate he is about MSFT's virtualization product. Faced with a psycho like Ballmer, the reporters will smile pleasantly and agree to a demonstration while sharpshooting teams are put into position to take down the insane CEO with tranquilizer rounds.
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I'm not sure what's worse
by Stefaninafla January 21, 2008 11:50 PM PST
MS taking over the virtualization market, or VMware keeping it. I'm not happy with either right now.
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There's more than VMWare and Microsoft out there...
by enovikoff January 22, 2008 2:41 AM PST
My company uses Xen on top of 3Tera's AppLogic to deliver utility-billed hosted computing. We got into this business because this combination is so far ahead of VMWare, and it makes Microsoft's catch-up game uninteresting - unless you like necrophilia. The name of the game in virtualization is manageability: having a stack of servers with hundreds of virtual servers in them is a nightmare waiting to happen the first moment something fails, but AppLogic will restart failed virtual servers on new hardware automatically. Microsoft will have to beat AppLogic and its competitors, not just provide virtualization, which itself is a commodity now.

-Eric Novikoff
http://www.ComputingUtility.com
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About Beyond Binary

During her years at CNET News, Ina Fried has changed beats several times, changed genders once, and covered both of the Pirates of Silicon Valley. These days, most of her attention is focused on Microsoft.


Beyond Binary is a look at how technology is changing our lives and the people behind all that life-changing stuff, with an extra emphasis on that which emanates from Redmond, Wash.

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