In the past 10 years VMware has executed a remarkable strategy to topple enterprise software incumbents and emerge as an ecosystem kingpin. More recently, the company has plunged head first into cloud computing from infrastructure to applications. Time and again, it seems as though VMware is beating Microsoft at its own game. But a look deeper reveals that is no surprise.
VMware is the new microsoft because a lot of ms veterans are working there.
1:
Really? Is that all the applications the author uses? or thinks businesses use?
2: Addition to the summary by Fergy: “… and because VMware is cloudy”.
Not a good read.
VMware isn’t the next Microsoft. They have to much competition they can’t strangle out with shady business practices and dirty tactics.
“VMware Is The New Microsoft, Just Without an OS”
Is the author unaware of VMWare ESX? Sure, it’s used differently than *nix or windows, but it is still an operating system.
It takes over from the bios, initializes devices, manages resources, and delegates them. The main difference is that it’s “userland” APIs are designed to closely mimic hardware rather than provide abstractions.
Edited 2011-05-16 14:16 UTC
Just because there are ex-Microsoft employees doesn’t remotely mean they’re the next Microsoft.
Additionally, VMWare’s licensing terms are a lot more reasonable in many aspects than Microsoft’s are, and are much more small/medium business friendly (see vSphere Essentials licensing terms).
I still may need Windows Server though, since VMWare can’t remotely replace the services I use under that platform, any more than it can replace Linux either. I have both platforms sitting on my network, spread over several ESX boxes, all managed from a central, remote-friendly console.
Except the clauses that says you can’t publish benchmarks that are negative for vmware. Or did they remove those again?
Journalistic license. Used in sports all the time. The next Michael Jordan, the next Gretsky, the next Hank Arron, the next Ronaldo. Rule of thumb: if you are the next anyone, you’re not.
“With VMware holding the keys to the hypervisor layer and management, then the platform layer, and even the cloud applications layer with email from Zimbra, and presentations from Slide Rocket, why do I need Windows?”
What’s the platform, Java? Why do I need Windows? Maybe to run .NET apps on top of 2008 server in the cloud?
I don’t think wmvare is going to beat Microsoft, there is an intense competition: Google’s AppEngine, Microsoft’s Azure ,Rackspace’s Mosso, Amazon’s EC2 and countless other smaller players. And I think Microsoft does a pretty nifty job: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/ .
Edited 2011-05-16 16:30 UTC