VMware has announced Intel's support for its upcoming client hypervisor and important server management tools, but these developments may be eclipsed by the news VMware's biggest competitors, Citrix and Microsoft, are extending their partnership.
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The Citrix-Microsoft deal will likely boost take-up of Microsoft's Hyper-V hypervisor and see Citrix' management tools - much if which will be free - reach a much wider audience. VMware is still the market leader, but the competition just got much tougher.
Windows is the operating system most often run on virtual servers, and buying the virtualisation software from the same company that developed the OS obviously has advantages. But Microsoft's v-word software trails behind VMware and Citrix' products in the area of management. That's a bad place to lag, because managing virtualised servers is challenging. Regardless of the platform or vendor, customers want better tools, as soon as possible. The tools are critical.
IT departments, especially in small and mid-sized businesses, face a dilemma if they want to cut costs by virtualising their servers. Should they wait for Microsoft to narrow the gap, or should they bite the bullet and spend precious resources training Windows administrators to use VMware or Citrix software?
The Microsoft-Citrix deal goes some way to answering that question, because Microsoft is set to offer a version of Citrix' tools that work with its Hyper-V hypervisor. Businesses can start work now, using that Citrix software. When Microsoft has plugged the gaps in its own management tools - in say a couple of years' time - those customers may want to switch to an all-Microsoft set-up. They will be able to do so much more easily than if they had started out with VMware's management tools, which work only with VMware's hypervisors.
To make Citrix' tools as attractive as possible to Microsoft customers, Microsoft will adapt its System Center systems management software to work with Citrix' software (as it has already done for VMware's software). In the other direction, Citrix has based its management console on Windows.
VMware and Microsoft already give away their respective ESXi and Hyper-V hypervisors free of charge. Citrix has gone one better. Its hypervisor is now free, and next month it will offer free management tools, with no limits on usage. Called XenServer Enterprise, this will be an attractive package. It will include sophisticated features that are not available from Microsoft, and are not free from VMware.
Meanwhile Citrix' most sophisticated server virtualisation tools will carry a cash price, in suites that will be called XenServer Essentials. The company hopes that once customers have used its free software, they will be happy to upgrade to Essentials. Citrix is not just aiming at Windows shops, but also at Linux-based cloud providers.
Citrix and Microsoft have a long history of working together in the delivery of thin and virtual client application delivery systems. Microsoft sells its own such systems, but openly recommends Citrix products for large deployments. Because those systems involve Windows licences, they have brought Microsoft a tidy extra income. As a result, the two companies' channels and sales staff are already familiar with each other.
What happens when Microsoft eventually catches up with Citrix, and starts offering its own competitive management tools? One obvious way for Citrix to deal with that situation would be to stay ahead, and serve the higher end of the market. Citrix is not giving up on its own hypervisors.
The big players are set to adopt a standard for virtual appliances that will make it a lot easier to move a virtual server from one hypervisor to another. But this only covers the installation of virtual servers, not their management. Standards for the latter are in hand, but they will be much tougher to develop and there is no guarantee they will be fully adopted.
Currently, VMware does not manage virtual servers running on other vendors' hypervisors. Until Microsoft or Citrix carve a much bigger market share, it is not in VMware's interest to do so. The Citrix/Microsoft deal has at least brought that prospect a lot closer.
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BY Timothy Stammers, Senior Analyst
Source：IT BRIEF
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