Article up on The Register about VMWare
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/23/vmware_q2_2008_earnings/
Cut through all the fancy figures, and diatribe and you get to what I think is the tucked away jewel in this story (for VMWare) ... ESXi (the light-weight version) will be free at the next release. And, what's the odds that the ESXi light-weight version will compare feature for feature with Hyper-V? Be interesting to see.
Is the Microsofts hype machine going to loose it's edge now? Not sure, but I'm sure going forward, if there is anything unique in Hyper-V per say, it will be lifted and placed in to VMWare's products. And rightly so I say, as Microsoft have blatantly done this with their offerings (SCVVM, Hyper-V).
It's funny how aggresively Microsoft are trying to take market share from VMWare, nothing subtle about it at all. Isn't it interesting times, now that (it would seem?) Microsofts only gambit and USP for Hyper-V has just gone flying out the window?
Right now, in my mind the only value-add from Hyper-V is:
- Microsoft Support
- Operations Manager 2007 to monitor the Hyper-V host\infrastructure
Those two points alone are enough for a lot of Microsoft shops to start winding down their VMWare usage, and begin implementing Hyper-V.
Of course, i'm not the most informed VMWare\Hyper-V guy around, but, unlike a lot of people shouting the value of Hyper-V i've actually tinkered with ESX and Virtual Center first-hand. And, I was taken aback by the performance and functionality of these two products all that time ago. Even now ESX cannot be touched functionality\performance-wise, no matter how many reports come out of Gartner or Microsoft saying otherwise. So, I guess i'm less receptive to the woooo-factor Hyper-V is bringing on amongst those that haven't had a chance to toy around with the competitors product range. Perhaps i'm jaded slightly, by something that isn't really new, that's been done in the mainframe world way before most of you reading this article were born, and was only really properlly propelled along by VMWare in to non-Unix\VMS\AS400 environments.
So, ESXi for free ... maybe that's going to dent the impact Hyper-V will make in the target market. Guess we have to wait and see!
Now saying all of this ... i'm using Hyper-V now at work on a tricked out server, and it's running like the clappers (old english term!). At home I'm planning on specc'ing up a server to host Hyper-V, so that I can do away with that nightmare, Virtual Server 2005 R2 and get off VMWare so that my VM's are compatible with the stuff I do in the Microsoft world (demo's, presentations et al).
Anyone with a a heady track history in Virtual technologies would have a far better take on all the pie throwing taking place between VMWare and Microsoft right now. Be good to read an unbiased apples for apples kind of review of ESX\Virtual Center and Hyper-V. Anyone find one, comment in here as I'd love to read it.
Feel free to comment, flame me, troll me over and spit me out, point out my lack of knowledge, off-center observations, stupidity, fact that i'm blonde, anything, be interesting to hear what others think about this!