Flash: VMWare eats Microsoft's lunch again, steals toys, cuts in line

Before Windows servers, UNIX

Before Windows servers, UNIX servers would run many many business processes on one box. Along comes Windows and it ends up that we needed 2 boxes for EACH server process. one UNIX box turned into 8+ Windows boxes for even a small business. There is the issue of security with Windows too and because it's so bad, userspace infections can take out the OS.

Whats a VMWare? Can I play

Whats a VMWare? Can I play DOS, Win9x & XP game sessions on it? If no I'm not interested.

"VMWare is now in v3, how

"VMWare is now in v3, how many patches, service releases, ETC have been out for their product and how old is it? Well…think of it this way...the product is 7yrs old and v3 just released. Microsoft seems to release an updated OS approximately every 3-5 yrs with several (or many) service packs in between."

I meant to add a comment about this to VMWare: THANK YOU! I don't know about the rest of you, but I DON'T WANT this platform to be something that I'm ALWAYS patching and upgrading. The fewer migrations that I need to go through on a system that hosts 50+ virtual servers on, the better. I LIKE how they're doing it. Instead of 100 little patches that give us some functionality here and there, they save it up for one big release. VMWare has been developing ESX 3.0 for years already.

I'm actually a big MS

I'm actually a big MS supporter myself, but I'm not blinded to the fact that there's some things out there that Microsoft just isn't the best at when you're dealing at an enterprise level. Virtual infrastructure is one and thin client computing is another.

I would compare this to the Citrix/Terminial services world in a way. Some people say that Citrix should "watch out" as MS continues to advance their Terminal Services platform, but Citrix always tends to stay one (or more) steps ahead. By the time MS figured out how to give us an enterprise management and application publishing solution, Citrix comes out with application isolation and compatibility enhancements.

Just like I don't think Citrix is sweating MS Terminal Services a whole lot, I don't think VMWare is sweating MSVS.

I wish the Microsoft sales

I wish the Microsoft sales guy would quit inserting comments. It gets rather annoying. "Microsoft is coming out with something really really cool that will blow VMware out the door.... Blah blah blah blah." FUD doesn't work here mr sales guy.

Mark my words, people --

Mark my words, people -- VMware does not fear Microsoft. VMware fears Xen. Xen keeps VMware moving forward.

Microsoft's roadmap shows their "core-only" OS (for use as a virtualization base) available in 2009. And, it's Microsoft, so it will slip from there. To compete, they must acquire. The purchase of Connectix helped them, but it will take a sea change to get them even on the map. Virtuozzo, ESX, Zones, Softricity... MS brought one product to a free-for-all; they're getting hammered on all sides.

MS beat Netscape after coming late to the party for one reason: ease of use. Ease of use in HTML coding (thru proprietary MS "features" like aX), ease of support, ease of use because it was built into the operating system... but this isn't the same ballgame. They aren't dealing with Sally Surfer here; they cannot invade this market by winning over casual users. As they watch, their OS is being turned into an appliance by VMware, the native problems that have plagued Windows for all of time are being fixed in varying ways by VMware and Softricity, and by the time MS gets to the starting line, VMware will not be the only opponent (as Netscape was) -- the field will be full of competent, nimble companies.

If this comes across as MS bashing, sorry -- I'm a Windows server admin for a huge company and know it inside and out, and have a bit of a palantir into MS server plans for the next few years. They almost seem resigned to their fate in this arena of serving small to medium business, knowing that unless they can purchase someone, this train has all but left the station.

Have you ever, noticed that

Have you ever, noticed that some writers, insert commas everywhere, they don't belong? Strunk and White, Jeff.

"Windows is just as much

"Windows is just as much like BSD Unix as Linux, if not more. You cannot fault the Operating System for the lack of responsibility of the application developers. A bad application can crash any OS."

Hmmm.... given reasonable process limits (no suid, no forkbombs, etc), I don't think this is the case for any recent version of the linux or *BSD kernels. Care to point to an example?

People need to realize that

People need to realize that Windows is just as much like BSD Unix as Linux, if not more. You cannot fault the Operating System for the lack of responsibility of the application developers. A bad application can crash any OS. Patching for Windows has become much better in Windows 2003, you do not have to reboot after every patch.

Microsoft is launching two attacks against VMware. The first is by supporting Xen, which runs modified OSs at native speed or unmodified OSs using Intels new virtualization technology. Xen owes a lot to Microsoft as they funded its initial development at Cambridge, which began by running modified versions of Windows XP. The second attack will be launched when they build in a hypervisor into Longhorn. When that happens, you will buy the OS for about $900 and then be able to run as many instances of it or any OS for no additional cost.

Xen added support for Intel's VT first. VMware came second, and Microsoft will support it officially with R2 of their product. VMware began by inserting a layer between each OS and the CPU, Network, and storage. Which is why you would lose 10-30% of your CPU to the vmkernel. The first round of hardware virtualization will improve the processor utilization area. The next wave of hardware virtualization, referred to as virtual IO will improve the perfomance of network and storage access.

Virtualization is entering a new phase where the virtualization layer is going to become and commodity. When Xen is free and runs any OS, a lot of people will use it and be running the fastest virtualization platform out there. They will suffer from a lack of free management tools, or they will pay for a competent solution. This will make it attractive compared to VMware.

Management is where VMware needs to focus. If a majority of your OSes are running Windows, Microsoft will continue to offer the best solution. Carmine, Microsoft's solution to managing virtual machines and dedicated machines is under development. Combine that with MOM and SMS and you have a solid solution to managing the proliferation of systems. Where Microsoft could kill all is by supporting the management of MS VServer, Xen, and VMware.

If you can afford to wait 6 months and want the best performance, take a look at http://www.xensource.com and http://www.virtualiron.com. They offer packaged versions of Xen. XenSource was founded by the main developers of Xen, and Virtual Iron has another virtualization solution that uses Infiniband to cluster inexpensive server boxes into large SMP processing pools. Only ran Linux though.

VM's wouldn't be popular if

VM's wouldn't be popular if the Windows OS could virtualize processes enough to keep applications from crashing the OS. Think about this. Before Windows servers, UNIX servers would run many many business processes on one box. Along comes Windows and it ends up that we needed 2 boxes for EACH server process( redundant ). one UNIX box turned into 8+ Windows boxes for even a small business. There is the issue of security with Windows too and because it's so bad, userspace infections can take out the OS. Again, poor OS design results in another hack( VMs ) to attempt to keep the hairball "Windows economy" rolling down hill.

What a waste. And it cracks me up when people talk about running Linux servers in VMs on a Linux host... Again, what a waste.