Microsoft and virtualization have had an on-again, off-again relationship, especially regarding Vista. Users were originally told they could only run virtual copies of the higher-end editions of Vista, which cheesed off a lot of people, especially those running Intel-based Macintosh computers and wanting to run Vista alongside Mac OS X. Then, Microsoft said it would expand Vista's virtualization options - but didn't. Sigh.
Now, Microsoft has deigned to allow users of Vista Home Basic and Vista Home Premium to run those offerings on virtual machines. In addition, Microsoft has acquired privately held start-up Calista Technologies, which offers software that enables delivery of virtualized desktop environments to remote computers. Terms were not disclosed.
Microsoft also announced expansion of its relationship with Citrix Systems, with a focus on that company's XenServer virtualization solution. Plans are for Citrix to deliver a tool that improves interoperability between XenServer and Microsoft's Hyper-V hypervisor, which Microsoft plans to include in Windows Server 2008, once that product eventually ships.
If you're VMware, or a VMware user, should you be worried? Doubtful. First of all, no one knows when Microsoft will actually ship a complete set of virtualization tools. Nor do we know whether or to what extent those tools will embrace versions of Windows other than Vista, or older versions of Microsoft applications still running effectively on millions of desktops and servers. And at the end of the day, Microsoft delivering virtualization solutions that don't play well with VMware would be like...well, like delivering software intended for the business mainstream that doesn't play well with Windows. An opportunity to make what we industry analysts sometimes refer to semi-cynically as "career-limiting decisions."
Virtualization is incredibly important to businesses attempting to save money on hardware and software, or to improve IT manageability and agility, or to pursue energy-saving initiatives. In other words, to almost every business reliant upon IT to do business, which is almost every business.
Microsoft would do well to take the high road here, and to "embrace and extend" the technologies users are already using, while attempting to compete on the merits of its own technologies. If it adopts a more confrontational stance, it could virtually freeze segments of the market, forcing IT decision-makers to wait for a clear winner and/or effective integration solutions to appear. However, I'm hopeful Microsoft will in fact do the right thing. I'm also curious about how Symantec and its Altiris team will respond, given its Software Virtualization Solution and alliances with Microsoft and VMware, among others. Could be virtually entertaining for some time to come...
Microsoft is committed to virtualization
Microsoft has thrown a LOT of resources at virtualization in the last few years. I've been playing with Hyper-V for well over a year and it's gone through its series of highs and lows along with Server 2008. However, it now seems pretty stable but in an awkward place between VMWare's Server (aka GSX) and ESX. If MS can match the performance and reliability of ESX with Hyper-V I think they'll win the war. Although VMWare is firmly entrenched in many environments, Hyper-V is closely coupled with everything else Microsoft which gives it a huge advantage.
For now I'm hoping for the best of both worlds scenario of MS SCVMM being able to manage Hyper-V AND VMWare virtual servers but I have my doubts if this will ever happen. It just makes too much sense.