Microsoft Appears Ready to Start Putting the Squeeze on VMware

VMware (VMW) has enjoyed having the virtualization market to itself, with only peripheral competition from Citrix (CTXS) and others. As I've talked about virtualization and security, it also seemed like the only story in town was VMware; Microsoft (MSFT) has been silent and Citrix has taken a more passive stance.

With Microsoft's blog on Hyper-V posted June 25, it appears that they're now ready to start putting the squeeze on VMware by announcing their intentions to go into areas under-served by VMware, including eventually entering the data center. The impact of their announced intentions is a signal to VMware's customers and prospects that Microsoft is on the way.

This officially puts VMware on notice that any delays in penetrating data centers with virtualization will increase the prospects of Microsoft competition, and possibly force lower margins and longer sales cycles. Microsoft has a formidable presence. They won't have to have a better product. If they deliver a more secure approach to virtualization, it could also spell trouble for VMware, as that is currently a very significant barrier to the full benefit of virtualization.

Virtualization-lite, or the adoption of hypervisor VLANs with restricted movement and flexibility, will not be enough to hold back Microsoft. VMware will need to get VMsafe members to step up and deliver elegant hypervisor visibility and enforcement. If they can heighten the VMware business case by unleashing the full power of virtualization in the data center, they will have a substantial head start - and that could be Microsoft's Achilles heel.

Disclosure: None

Comments

[dcc:]

This author of this artilcle does not understand virtualization or how it is being deployed in the datacenter.

It will be years before Microsoft competes on datacenter deals with VMWare. Microsoft will dominate the low-end of the market but that is not where the profits are.

2008 Jun 29 07:48 PM