Lower cost rivals challenge VMware lead
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(InfoWorld) - Virtual Iron and XenSource both are introducing new virtualization software to undercut on price the dominant player in the field, VMware. On Monday, Virtual Iron is set to start offering Version 3.1 of its enterprise-class virtualization platform for a license price of $499 per socket, which is less than 20 percent of the $2,875 per socket price for a comparable VMware license, according to Virtual Iron. Virtual Iron argues that VMware's pricing is a barrier to more widespread adoption of virtualization in data centers, citing IDC research that only 6 percent of data center operators deploy any type of virtualization. Also Monday, XenSource introduced new and upgraded virtualization products, also at sub-$1,000 prices. Both XenSource and Virtual Iron build their proprietary products on top of the open-source Xen platform for virtualization hypervisors. A hypervisor is technology that makes it possible for one computer to run multiple operating systems at the same time. VMware's products are not based on open source. Virtualization refers to software and other system management tools that are used to better utilize servers. Virtualization makes it possible for one physical server to run multiple applications simultaneously. Advanced virtualization features include tools to seamlessly move computing workloads from one physical server to another, set up infrastructure and test new software. Revenue at VMware, a wholly owned subsidiary of storage vendor EMC, grew 86 percent in EMC's fiscal third quarter to $188.5 million. If that pace keeps up, VMware's annualized revenue would be $750 million, VMware said. Virtual Iron and XenSource intend to slow that pace. "We are taking a very aggressive stand on pricing," said Mike Grandinetti, chief marketing officer for Virtual Iron. The Charlotte Observer newspaper in North Carolina uses Virtual Iron. It took 45 minutes to run a particular job on its legacy Unix-based servers, said Geoff Shorter, the Observer's IT infrastructure manager. VMware completed the same job in 11 to 13 minutes, but so did the less expensive Virtual Iron. The license for the high-end VMware product costs $5,750 to run on a dual-socket server, Shorter said. Virtual Iron's license is $499 per socket, so the total cost for a dual-socket machine license would be $998. Pricing for XenSource's XenEnterprise starts at for $488 for an annual subscription license for a dual-socket server or $750 for a perpetual license. XenServer for Windows, introduced Monday, sells for $99 per dual-socket server, per year. It has fewer features than XenEnterprise. "Our intention is to dramatically shift the landscape under VMware," said Simon Crosby, XenSource's chief technology officer. Virtualization is following a classic economic model of an early mover dominating a market and charging a premium, soon followed by challengers competing on price, said Gordon Haff, principal IT advisor at Illuminata Inc., a technology research company. Haff said enterprises that have deployed VMware are seeing a positive return on their investment despite the price and he doesn't think price alone is keeping enterprises from adopting virtualization. "Even if virtualization software were free, it wouldn't become ubiquitous because of the complexity of the implementation," he said.
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In a matchup between VMware Server and Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2, our reviewer says they're both capable products and that the differences is "on the margin." Making the right choice is all about deciding what's most important to your infrastructure.
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VMware tests a desktop virtualization program that runs on a USB drive.
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These days, numbers just seem to blur together. Microsoft is thinking about paying $500 million for 5 percent of Facebook, which would make that company worth $10 billion. VMware, in which parent company EMC recently sold a stake to the public, is currently valued at $30 billion (that's just for VMware, not the whole of EMC).
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Company looks to juice its application server business with a version tuned for smaller organizations.
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The longtime rivals claim that they&#39;ll work harder to make their software work together. By Aaron Ricadela. Longtime rivals Microsoft and Sun Microsystems have made a &quot;180-degree U-turn&quot; in their relationship
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Despite generous offer, software company says rival bids could emerge.
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Raises white paper with ball of fluff In classic Redmond fashion, Microsoft has countered VMware's charges of anticompetitive practices in the server virtualization market by heaving a giant ball of fluff at reporters.â¦
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SAN JOSE, Calif.  -- Seeking to be more competitive with Microsoft Corp...
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Virtualization leader VMware condemns what it calls Microsoft's moves to block competition in the virtualization market.
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More than 80 percent of VMware income comes from higher-level tools, a move that gives the EMC subsidiary more breathing room against rivals.Getting real about virtualization
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A new low-cost desktop bundle runs Red Hat Enterprise and is aimed at small and medium-size businesses.
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Continuing its steady push to win over the hearts and wallets of midsize companies, IBM on Tuesday is rolling out two lower-priced Unix-based servers that will go head-to-head with offerings from archrivals Sun Microsystems and Hewlett-Packard.
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The management software is available for $860 per host server -- which means the actual server that hosts any instances of virtual software.
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(InfoWorld) - In 2006, many enterprise IT groups saw the potential in virtualization, rushed to consolidate servers and subsequently propelledÂ VMwareÂ software to a market-leading spot. As 2007 begins, VMware's prices are under attack, just as more CIOs look to virtualization to control server and storage sprawl and tame data center power costs. For starters, VMware rivals XenSource and Virtual Iron Software have launched new open-source alternatives, undercutting VMware on price. Also, new processors, such as IBM's Power 5 and upcoming Power 6 chips, and new operating systems have virtualization capabilities built in, negating the need for some additional software, says Clay Ryder, president of The Sageza Group. Sun Microsystems' Solaris 10 OS includes a virtualization feature it calls Containers. MicrosoftÂ is expected to release a beta version of Windows Virtual Server in the first quarter of 2007 and ship it a year later. That's good news: As virtualization features become part of the hardware or the OS, software providers will have to offer useful extra features, Ryder says, such as automated new software testing or security patch management. Virtual Iron introduced Version 3.1Â of its virtualization platform in December for a license price of $499 per socket--compared to $2,875 per socket for a comparable VMware license. XenSource also introduced new virtualization products at sub-$1,000 prices. Both XenSource and Virtual Iron build their proprietary products on top of the open-source Xen platform for virtualization hypervisors. (A hypervisor lets a computer run multiple operating systems at once.) VMware's products are not based on open source. Meanwhile, middleware vendor BEA Systems is making its own cost-cutting move. In the first half of 2007,Â BEA plans to releaseÂ WebLogic Server Virtual Edition (WLS-VE), a version of its Java application server that includes Liquid VM--a BEA-specific Java Virtual Machine that lets Java applications run directly on a hypervisor without requiring an operating system to be present. This will let users substantially reduce the amount of computer power, lowering the hardware costs per application, says Guy Churchward, vice president and general manager of the Java Runtime Products Group at BEA Systems. Initially, Liquid VM will work only with VMware's ESX Server hypervisor. Analysts advise CIOs planning for virtualization in 2007 to think strategically, not just tactically. "To really make virtualization work you want to do it so end users access capability, not just specific machines," Ryder says. "That's only going to be possible if you take a strategic approach," he says, noting that virtualization needs to be applied to storage, networking and the introduction of new software, not just servers. Mike Williams, CIO for the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA), learned a lesson about thinking strategically when he did a virtualization project in 2006. (The DCMA, a federal Department of Defense agency, places contract managers inside companies fulfilling defense contracts for weapons systems, jets, military equipment and parts.) Williams deployed VMware, reducing the agency's number of servers to 160 from 560 and the number of data centers to three from 17. But that move taxed the WAN when all the network traffic converged on the three data centers. His advice: Optimize the WAN first. Still, Williams likes the results. Before virtualization, DCMA replaced about one-third of its 560 servers annually at a cost of about $2 million, Williams says; virtualization cut that expense to $560,000.
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VMware, the EMC subsidiary whose software lets a computer run multiple operating systems simultaneously in separate &quot;virtual machines,&quot; has grown a step more ambitious.
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While Hewlett-Packard, Dell and IBM are the recognized leaders of the X86 server market, one player has surprisingly begun to gain ground.