Microsoft has a lot to say about their Virtualisation technology. Most of it is a continual repetition of its "Our virtualisation technology is as good as VMware's." They have now sorted out their pricing model and have the core products either shipping or about to ship. So, how does it compare to VMware?
Microsoft have announced that:
- Hyper-V will be available free of charge,
- Virtual Machine Manager 2008 will be available within the month,
- Virtual Machine Manager 2008 will be able to manage VMware servers, and
- Live migration is coming to Windows Server 2008 and Hyper-V.
They didn't say that in a migration scenario their licensing model requires both the source and destination server be licensed (separately).
Interestingly, it would appear that Hyper-V users use Hyper-V because live migration just isn't critical to their business. Where migration is important, users stick with VMware. It will be interesting to see how the market share changes in 2010 when live migration ships in the next major version of Windows Server 2008. Until then it's not important and customers seemingly don't need it anyway.
VMM goes a long way to help with capacity planning but doesn't provide much help to control the spread of virtual servers. It would seem that this is a significantly bigger issue than live migration.
Microsoft would also have you believe that they can manage both VMware and Microsoft virtual infrastructures from within Systems Centre. Why, one asks, would you bother since, until VMware publish their API's for managing ESX, you have to buy VMware's management tools and with the availability of live migration they are functionally richer?
This is all about Bangs for the Buck!
Despite the standard Microsoft message that "Hyper-V or VMM is in no way inferior to VMware" and even though committed Hyper-V users say VMware is better technology, users just don't feel they need that level of capability, and aren't willing to pay for it.
The argument will be swayed by the upfront cost and the most obvious potential for savings - the cost of the software vs. the amount saved from consolidating little servers into big ones.
I await VMware's response at the impending VMworld gathering.
Posted by: peter in Peter Borner, change, bpm on
Sep 8, 2008
CIO Magazine's recent poll of top ten CIO concerns concludes that the fast moving pace of technological innovation means change is a guaranteed part of the CIO's remit. They argue, the most significant management issue that CIOs have to face this year is change management - business process change, changes in organisational cultures and the impact of that change on their staff and their organisational culture.
Why then, are most CIO's slow to embrace Business Process Management Technology? There are numerous case studies across many verticals that show BPM delivers results. BPM technology, properly implemented, has shown consistent improvements in process compliance and ability to deliver an agile platform for improvement.
Posted by: peter in Peter Borner on
Sep 1, 2008
Unless you operate in an industry that has rarely found sustainable competitive advantage through innovating with technology you have the potential to make a fundamental difference to the performance and profitability of your company through wise investment in IT. The digital revolution is providing opportunities to move business models to a very different place. Web 2.0 is all around us and is making a radical impact on our lives. Organisations that have learnt to embrace Web 2.0 technology are leading this charge.
Think about it, shopping gets delivered to your door. You get personalised news feeds to your desktop. Instant Messaging, social networking sites like Facebook and business networking sites like LinkedIn are transforming your working day. Mundane tasks from banking to booking travel, from buying insurance to sharing photos are all now done online at a time that works for you.
There's a seismic shift going on in consumer behaviour. This shift is driven entirely by technology, and that technology is now moving from the consumer into the workplace.
Companies need to think about technology in a creative and imaginative way. Can you fail to embrace Web2.0?.
