Vmware released it’s answer to Microsoft’s Hyper-V product today: a free to download and using 32MB diskspace of footprint Hypervisor.
This can only mean that the virtualisation market is gearing up for one heck of a competition run, maybe even a full-out war. Frankly, Vmware has the lead right now, they are market leader in this segment, and their products are currently second to none. As I mentioned in my earlier blogpost, Microsoft turned out what I consider an ‘unfinished’ product with Hyper-V, but the advantage is that it comes included with windows. On the other hand, Vmware is proven technology, something you want for virtualisation in a business setting, and Microsoft clearly has a couple of miles to go before they get to the level Vmware is at.
So, we have to wait and see how well either product family does. I’m betting on Vmware, quite simply because I’ve been using it for a while now, and it’s a very robust and mature solution. It’s fast, scalable and flexible, but the prices are kind of steep for a beginning business. On the other hand, prices are dropping fast, and each products competitive advantages are becoming more and more clear now.
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