Microsoft has troubled road ahead with virtualisation

Stan Beer
Tuesday, 15 July 2008 15:18

Business IT - Technology

While Microsoft struggles to bring Hyper-V to market, VMware already has a mature hypervisor with, just importantly, an associated kit of sophiticated management tools that Microsoft doesn't possess. And to put a sealer on it, VMware already has the runs on the board with sites around the world successfully shrinking their physical x86 server numbers by ratios of greater than 10 to 1.

As far as management tools are concerned, it seems that Microsoft is in big trouble.

"The first version of that management tool will lack some key functions, such as the ability to move guest servers from one physical box to another while they are running. Without this, Microsoft’s virtualized servers will lack the fluidity that enables load-balancing and high availability. That function is already in VMware’s toolbox, together with the other advanced features. VMware has also promised to maintain its lead, with impressive updates to its management software already in development," says Ovum's Stammers.

So the name of the game for Microsoft is to use its market power to try to unseat VMware's virtualisation dominance in the enterprise server space, while winning new clients in the largely untapped SMB space.

In data centres, where clients are technologically sophisticated and require technologically sophisticated tools, Microsoft's chances are slim. However, in the smaller business space there may be a glimmer of hope, although still just a glimmer.

"Microsoft has the advantage that many businesses – especially small ones – will want to use virtualisation software from the same company that wrote Windows itself," says Stammers.

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