Citrix and Microsoft Load Up Against VMware
In an industry so rife with overwhelming market share in so many areas -- operating systems, anyone? -- it's nice to see an old-fashioned battle shaping up in virtualization.
VMware still has the biggest plate at the virtual table, but this week Citrix and Microsoft announced an extension of their already close relationship that could help them take a chunk out of VMware's pie. Keith Ward, editor of Virtualization Review, offers up the news here and breaks it back down here.
Keith knows a lot more about virtualization than your editor does, so we're going to spare you our lame analysis and invite you to click on Keith's links. All we really have to say is this: We love a good battle. We love competition, especially when Microsoft is cast as an unlikely underdog. (Maybe that's why we continue to be so smitten with Dynamics.)
Microsoft and Citrix linking up has to be good news for Microsoft partners, as it broadens both companies' virtualization offerings and helps flesh out a product strategy that can finally let the duo start to compete on more equal footing, functionality-wise, with VMware.
As for the market leader, VMware is a savvy company that will no doubt offer some innovation of its own at the upcoming VMworld conference in the entirely sensible location of Cannes, France. (We'll be covering that one virtually from sunny Framingham, Mass., but we're not upset about that or anything. Really, it's fine.)
We're excited to see a fierce contest shaping up that should drive innovation, grow the market and hopefully benefit everybody in the long run. What a concept. Remember when the whole technology industry used to be like that?
Give us your take on Microsoft and Citrix and their virtualization plans at [email protected].
Posted by Lee Pender on February 24, 2009