Virtualisation latecomer Microsoft has fired another shot in
its battle to win market share from dominant player
VMWare, but its latest salvo will not win the war. Nor is
Microsoft the only challenger.
From September,
Microsoftis to relax rules for moving applications from server
to server and increase support for IT departments that use
third-party virtualisation technology.
The move is intended to reduce licensing complexity and allow
organisations greater choice of technology, thereby removing two of
the biggest barriers to virtualisation for many organisations,
particularly small and medium businesses.
VMWare has consolidated its virtualisation market lead in the
past decade as a pioneer of the technology, which allows users to
run multiple applications on a single server.
Customer demand for more dynamic data centre environments that
use virtualisation to relocate workloads in response to changing
needs is the most likely driver of the Microsoft licensing and
support changes, according to Neil Macehiter, research director at
MWD Advisors.
"The licensing changes are necessary for customers that are
looking to move beyond the initial server consolidation use case,"
he says.
Microsoft may be forging ahead with an overall strategy aimed at
establishing leadership in virtualisation in the long term through
making it easier to use its applications in the virtualised
environment, but it is not the only big supplier competing for
market share.
Microsoft's move is really just another indication that
competition in virtualisation is increasing rapidly, says David
Mitchell, senior vice-president of IT research at Ovum.
The collective virtualisation effort by Microsoft, Sun
Microsystems, Oracle and other suppliers is likely to represent a
substantial challenge to VMWare in the year ahead as competition
drives greater innovation and lower prices, says Mitchell.
While end users will benefit from these changes, he warns that
increased choice could result in confusion as suppliers step up the
battle for market share by using fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD)
to undermine the technical credentials of competitors.
Businesses need to prepare for increased competition in
virtualisation by ensuring they are clear about what they need and
expect from using virtualisation and by keeping up to date with the
technologies on offer.
"Buyer education needs to be high to avoid being dragged into
FUD and all virtualisation implementations are going to require
some careful thinking," says Mitchell.
Kurt Daniel, senior vice-president at virtualisation vendor
Parallels, says to be a winner Microsoft needs a live migration
tool to take on VMWare's ability to move an application from one
server to another with zero downtime.
Microsoft also needs to introduce some good management tools,
and although some are in the pipeline, it is unlikely it will be
able to match the mature products from VMWare and other suppliers
with its first version due out later this year.
Microsoft has quite a bit of ground to make up before it could
emerge as the leading challenger to VMWare, but as competition and
choice increase, virtualisation decisions could become extremely
difficult for businesses that are not armed with the information
and knowledge they need.