VMware, beware
Competition looms for the virtualization frontrunner as VMworld conference kicks off
By
Robert Mullins
,
Network World
, 09/10/2007
- Share/Email
- Tweet This
- Print
As VMware hosts its first VMworld conference as a public company this week in San Francisco, its star is ascending.
Since going public at $29 a share Aug. 14, the company’s stock price has not closed below $51. Industry researchers note that
80% of the businesses using virtualization to improve utilization of their x86 servers choose VMware software. Some competitors
hope to catch up to VMware, but their couple hundred customers each could fit into a phone booth compared with VMware’s 20,000.
Meanwhile VMware continues to innovate, bringing virtualization to the desktop, embedding VMware directly into servers and taking other steps to maintain its lead.
But every company in its IPO prospectus has to acknowledge risk factors, and some of VMware’s could manifest themselves quickly.
Virtualization player Citrix announced a $500 million acquisition of XenSource Aug. 15, while XenSource narrowly beat VMware to market Sept. 5 with plans to embed its hypervisor directly into servers,
too.
Not to mention the Microsoft threat. Microsoft plans to ship its hypervisor, called Windows Server Virtualization, in the latter half of next year as
an add-on to the Windows Server 2008 operating system, which is due out early next year. Although Microsoft has been slow
to respond to VMware’s challenge with a competitive virtualization hypervisor of its own, when it finally does it will certainly
be noticed by Microsoft’s sizable server customer base. Microsoft also argues that VMware’s popularity in server virtualization
does not necessarily translate into popularity in desktops, application, storage and networking virtualization.
Still, as VMware hosts an estimated 10,000 attendees at VMworld 2007 in San Francisco, it enjoys frontrunner status. The venue
is also the stage for other vendors in the VMware ecosystem to announce their own related products.
“[VMware is] clearly the market leader. There’s no question,” says Mark Bowker, an analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group. “They
are gaining amazing traction in the environment.”
Virtualization software is designed to make a physical server act like multiple logical servers, improving server utilization
by allowing IT managers to efficiently combine numerous computing resources on a single server.
The latest product enhancements from VMware, which are being announced at VMworld, include an upgrade to its ESX virtualization
package for enterprises. The ESX 3i hypervisor is embedded directly into the hardware rather than as software that has to
be installed later. The small 32Mb hypervisor is only about 2% of the size of the typical operating system, such as Windows,
says Bogomil Balkansky, senior director of product marketing for VMware.
The smaller footprint makes ESX 3i easier to operate and more secure than a software solution and complements virtualization-optimized
processors coming from Intel and AMD, he says.
VMware also is introducing a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure product that includes what Balkansky calls a “connection broker.”
It can distribute individual virtual desktops from a server to each end user on a network or deliver one desktop configuration
to multiple end users. The latter works for a call center, for example, in which multiple staffers work from the same user
interface.
Partner Content
www.bmc.com
Gartner 2009 Magic Quadrant for Job Scheduling
Gartner has positioned BMC CONTROL-M in the Leaders Quadrant of their "2009 Magic Quadrant for Job Scheduling." The report assesses the ability to execute and completeness of vision of key vendors in the marketplace. Read a full copy today, courtesy of BMC Software.
Download whitepaper
Dell's SMART Approach to Workload Automation
Read a compelling case study by EMA, Inc. to learn how Dell uses BMC CONTROL-M to cut cost and increase productivity with workload automation.
Download whitepaper
Workload Automation Cost Savings 2 Minute Video
A major computer manufacturer uses BMC CONTROL-M and just four people to schedule and run over 85,000 jobs every month. By switching to BMC CONTROL-M, they more than quadrupled the workload without adding a single staff member. See how in this 2-minute video overview.
Go to video
Comments (2)
RE: VMware, bewareBy westside guy on September 10, 2007, 4:23 pmFor desktop virtualization on my Mac, I started out with a VMware competitor - Parallels - but ended up back with VMware. The reason? Customer support. VMware has...
Reply | Read entire comment
Unfortunately, VMWare PlayerBy Anonymous on November 6, 2007, 1:12 pmUnfortunately, VMWare Player requires you to agree to 2 years of Audit Rights _AFTER_ support of VMWare Player is pulled - which includes an inspection of your hardware. How's...
Reply | Read entire comment
View all comments