It's a VMworld, and the Rest of Us Just Live in It

Just as the weather is cooling down (at least where we are), VMware is heating up. We've heard the figure 10,000 bandied about in reference to the number of attendees at this week's VMworld in San Francisco. We haven't confirmed that number ourselves, but if it's accurate, it roams in the same ballpark as Microsoft TechEd and Worldwide Partner Conference numbers. Maybe even a bigger ballpark. VMworld is big. Let's just say that.

Following on yesterday's raft of product announcements, VMware soldiered on today, revealing the acquisition of a Swiss virtual machine management vendor called Dunes -- so named, no doubt, because Switzerland is known for its...dunes?

Anyway, never to be outdone even at somebody else's show, Microsoft staged an announcement with Citrix to say...well, not much, as friend of RCP Mary Jo Foley notes (the companies will be standardizing on Microsoft's VHD format). But Microsoft is saying something (more than one thing, actually), we suppose, and that's what seems to matter most in Redmond. Nobody at Microsoft wants us to forget that the mothership is very tuned into virtualization -- despite the fact that it's still way behind VMware in almost every way possible and doesn't seem to have all that much of a coherent strategy for how to really break into the market.

For now, virtualization is VMware's world, and Microsoft is just trying to live in it. And with VMware being part of (don't forget) mega-monster EMC, it's unlikely that Redmond will be able to bully its way to the front of the market share line any time soon. But we know that won't stop Microsoft from trying -- or at least talking about trying.

What's your take on Microsoft's virtualization strategy? Or VMware's, for that matter? Let me know at lpender@rcpmag.com.

Posted by Lee Pender on September 12, 2007 at 11:54 AM