Virtualization update - the players

I really need to follow up on these things.

If you go back to my mrontemp posts from 11/13/2007, 11/18/2007 [1], and 11/18/2007 [2], you'll recall that Oracle introduced Oracle VM at Oracle OpenWorld 2007.

And perhaps you saw the September 19, 2008 FriendFeed conversation that resulted when I shared an article entitled "VMware Says Another Executive Is Stepping Down." The article, which apparently is no longer available, certainly mentioned the earlier departure of co-founder Diane Greene from VMware (see a contemporary Forbes article for THAT story). The conversation mentioned another competitor to VMware: namely, Microsoft.

And this Charles Babcock article mentions Citrix, as well as some other players.

So where is the virtualization market today?

If you believe The Age, the players are VMware, Microsoft, and everyone else.

LAST year was a breakthrough time for virtualisation, with market leader VMware setting a cracking pace and Microsoft finally laying its cards on the table.

While spending some time talking about VMware, the article also discussed Microsoft's efforts:

Microsoft...has announced a comprehensive virtualisation war chest, claiming list prices for its V-word and management software would give it the edge.

Ovum senior analyst Timothy Stammers says: "Microsoft's pricing underlines the fact that its initial assault on the server virtualisation market will begin at the low end."

Microsoft makes no secret that it has VMware in its sights, but as MrStammers says: "This will initially present VMware with much less competition at the high end."

By the time Microsoft fills the gap, VMware is likely to have secured its market position.

At a recent conference in Las Vegas, VMware's president and chief executive, Paul Maritz, shrugged off suggestions of a VMware-Microsoft virtualisation war, saying: "They've locked onto our tail lights. They might release at less cost, but they'll be two years late. We're not overawed by them."

I'll probably have more to say on the low end later.

So where is Oracle? I couldn't find a lot of talk about Oracle VM in a Google News search, but I did find this from CIO/Computerworld:

With budget cuts across industries, yet high demand for service quality, the current global financial crisis is seen as "the perfect occasion" for the integration of open systems with proprietary software.

The article talks about some of the solutions that Touch Solutions is offering:

[Founder Anson] Uy, along with Boom Villaba, vice president of sales in Touch Solutions, announced that their company is ready in providing Oracle Enterprise Linux solutions, including the selling of Oracle Unbreakable Linux Support for businesses of all sizes....

During a recent press conference at the Mandarin Hotel in Makati City, Touch executives demonstrated the Oracle VM (virtual machine), meant to create virtual machines and automate them. For example, they showed how Windows XP ran on Linux.

"With Oracle VM you don't need to buy proprietary software licenses for each user's PC but they can use the software if they're connected to the Oracle VM that has it," Boom said. "It's like extracting the juice from that box."

More here.