Who is the winner of the future for Microsoft or VMware?

This is a tough time for Microsoft, at least for virtualization.

Microsoft is facing the following problem: VMware is ahead of Microsoft by establishing a dominant position in the field of server virtualization before Microsoft understands the trend of virtualization. In itself, it is not particularly eye-catching-in the past, Microsoft was not the winner in the first field to enter new fields, however, they usually force other competitors out of the market by making full use of their powerful economic strength, so as to quickly realize the future.

However, the VMware New York Stock Exchange Code; VMW) is not so easy to get out of the game. If we are honest about this, we must acknowledge that Microsoft's NASDAQ code: MSFT) in the field of server virtualization, we have not achieved many leading advantages. Despite Microsoft's bundled sales of Hyper-V hypervisor as part of its server operating System, with its System Center Virtual Machine Manager module, hyper-V Live Migration and all other Microsoft Server Virtualization Technologies compete with VMware's vMotion.

But in fact, if you plan to run large-scale critical task application software, you usually choose Linux or Unix OS instead of Windows Server as the application environment. Similarly, if you plan to use large-scale mission-critical server virtualization software, you will usually prefer VMware instead of Microsoft's Hyper-V hypervisor, right? A typical example is: How many enterprise users are deploying Hyper-V Live Migrations? I bet not much. How many enterprise users are running vMotions? The answer is many: it is estimated that 5.5 vMotions are generated every second. According to VMware CEO Paul Maritz at the VMworld 2011 conference in Las Vegas earlier this week, "the number of virtual machines deployed in the application environment has exceeded the number of planes in the sky ".

What makes Microsoft even more depressing is that VMware has quickly moved out of common Server Virtualization Technologies and announced to enterprise users interested in Virtualization Technologies that they are actually a cloud computing company. Virtualization is no longer limited to server consolidation, but synonymous with scalable automated computing infrastructure. When Microsoft is still trying to meet several times the product's server virtualization features, VMware has moved to a new field. How can companies like Microsoft rooted in desktop systems, server operating systems, and production application software meet their competitive needs?

Obviously, it can only be a poor imitation. In concert with VMware, which attracted a lot of attention in Las Vegas this week, Microsoft released a video titled "do not indulge in IT", which is very entertaining. But does this help Microsoft? I am skeptical.

Let's take a look at Microsoft's statement about "VMLimited" in the video. Their sales staff Ted called "He is addicted to past enterprise work ". Forgive me. If this statement applies to any company, it is Microsoft, not VMware.

"When he says that he is selling cloud, he actually sells virtualization ". Virtualization is indeed the foundation of the cloud, but it is more abundant than virtualization. You can describe Microsoft and Their managed Management Program in this way. "when he says he is selling virtualization, he actually sells the Operating System ".

However, Microsoft's statement is:

"Can I manage other management programs with your solution ?" A VMware user asked ted. "No," he nodded and replied. Of course, you can use System Center Virtual Machine Manager to manage vmwarevm, but you cannot use vCenter to easily manage Hyper-V Virtual machines. However, I think this lack of support for Hyper-V hypervisor means that VMware can cope with this unsupported situation, highlighting that Hyper-V hypervisor is really insignificant. For example, Mac OS x can read files in Windows format, but Windows cannot read hard disk files in OS X format. Do I need to talk more?

"The more you use, the more you pay," Ted said. This is a fact. Because VMware can cope with this situation. Microsoft most hopes that the more complicated the vSphere 5 pricing model of VMware, the better, but in fact VMware has changed their charging model for vSphere 4 to 5, then, after the initial announcement, the price of vSphere 5 was revised. But Maritz made an extraordinary response at the Las Vegas conference, "you will try something new at any time, and you must be prepared for all kinds of feedback. The correction process is inevitable ".

However, at the end of the video, Microsoft designed Ted to go out of the door of the mobile conference in the final scenario, thinking about the future of virtualization technology. "Cloud is not bad, but it's just a temporary craze," Ted thinks.

This is just an episode. But ask yourself: If you plan to migrate your company's computing infrastructure to the cloud-whether it is a private cloud or a hybrid cloud, you will choose the cloud infrastructure of that vendor: microsoft or VMware?