VMware Vs. Microsoft: 8 Cloud Battle Lines

Microsoft and VMware can't call a truce in the virtualization and cloud wars. There's too much money at stake. The rivalry is only expected to heat up as both companies set their sights on the still-growing public cloud services market.

On Tuesday VMware announced details of its infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) product called vCloud Hybrid Service, which will be an alternative to Amazon Web Services, Windows Azure and Google Compute Engine.

As InformationWeek's Charles Babcock wrote, "VMware will establish four data centers in the U.S. in which it will host a cloud environment that's highly compatible to the one that its customers use in the VMware-virtualized portion of their on-premises data centers." (See that full VMware storyhere.)

"We believe the hybrid cloud should allow you to seamlessly extend your data center to the public cloud leveraging the same infrastructure, same network, same management and skills," wrote Mathew Lodge, VP of cloud services at VMware in an earlier blog entry.

Microsoft isn't sitting by idly. The day after VMware first announced its hybrid cloud service, Amy Barzdukas, Microsoft Server and tools marketing general manager posted a response: "Just another example of how IT vendors have been rearranging the furnitureto more effectively deliver what they already have on the shelf."

Expect to see Microsoft lob more grenades into the front lines, namely updates to Windows Azure and platform-as-a-service (PaaS) and infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) product announcements in the weeks and months ahead.

But the battle lines around vCloud Hybrid Service are just being drawn. There are considerations such as cost, usability, public and private cloud management -- and what if you're a large company that sees virtualization as the key to a flexible, programmable, software-defined data center? Right now, VMware has the advantage there.

Craig-Hallum analyst Rajesh Ghai says cloud virtualization markets have big growth potential. "With nearly 70% of data center workloads already virtualized, the next big growth area is in cloud management and deployment," Ghai said.

Dig into our slideshow to explore the areas in which VMware and Microsoft are duking it out, and who holds the advantage at the moment. Then share your perspective in the comments section.

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons Daniel Schwen
A big win for Microsoft is with companies looking to cut the cost of virtualization. Windows Server 2012 comes with Hyper-V 2012, Microsoft's own cloud service tools. If you run a small IT shop, it doesn't always make sense to buy VMware's vSphere 5, which is more expensive and might be more than you need. With an eye toward growing companies, Microsoft is updating its Hyper-V bundles. Most recently it updated its SMB 2.2 to 3.0 to deliver high-availability clusters using moderately priced servers along with host-to-host VM replication.
Image credit: Microsoft
RECOMMENDED READING:
VMware Hybrid Cloud Plans: Time For Amazon Answer
Amazon Expands Private Cloud-Like Options
Cloud Survey Has Warning For Amazon
Enterprise Data Centers: A Buyer's Market
Meeting The MSP/CSP Storage Challenge
How Netflix Is Ruining Cloud Computing
Where Cloud Security Falls Short
Follow Feds To The Cloud
Google Strengthens Cloud Platform
Why IT Is Struggling To Build Private Clouds
Large companies that see virtualization as the key to a flexible, programmable, software-defined data center are a VMware win. During the past 10 years, as virtualization has taken root, x86 commodity servers have become the majority. Now these servers can be virtualized with VMware and don't have to be tied to a specific platform, namely Microsoft. Data is defined by the virtual machine software and not by the hardware and its underlying OS and applications. The market advantage goes to VMware. It's platform agnostic and can run on a server computer, underneath the actual operating system, and handle multiple operating systems at a time.
Image credit: VMware
RECOMMENDED READING:
VMware Hybrid Cloud Plans: Time For Amazon Answer
Amazon Expands Private Cloud-Like Options
Cloud Survey Has Warning For Amazon
Enterprise Data Centers: A Buyer's Market
Meeting The MSP/CSP Storage Challenge
How Netflix Is Ruining Cloud Computing
Where Cloud Security Falls Short
Follow Feds To The Cloud
Google Strengthens Cloud Platform
Why IT Is Struggling To Build Private Clouds
Business units that experimented with Hyper-V Manager because it was available as part of Windows Server 2012 are a solid win for Microsoft. Companies must assess their needs first, but if the goal is to minimize cost, and the cloud deployment needs match those of a typical small and midsize business, then the migration path to Hyper-V Manager is an easy one.
Image credit: Microsoft
RECOMMENDED READING:
VMware Hybrid Cloud Plans: Time For Amazon Answer
Amazon Expands Private Cloud-Like Options
Cloud Survey Has Warning For Amazon
Enterprise Data Centers: A Buyer's Market
Meeting The MSP/CSP Storage Challenge
How Netflix Is Ruining Cloud Computing
Where Cloud Security Falls Short
Follow Feds To The Cloud
Google Strengthens Cloud Platform
Why IT Is Struggling To Build Private Clouds
There are advantages in leveraging existing investments in Microsoft .Net and other Microsoft technologies already used in your network. If the foundation of your virtual infrastructure is Windows Server 2012, then you are already using Microsoft .Net along with Hyper-V Manager. It comes down to the size of your deployment and need, but for a Microsoft house to consider moving its business to VMware means shouldering new costs to make the transition.
Image credit: Microsoft
RECOMMENDED READING:
VMware Hybrid Cloud Plans: Time For Amazon Answer
Amazon Expands Private Cloud-Like Options
Cloud Survey Has Warning For Amazon
Enterprise Data Centers: A Buyer's Market
Meeting The MSP/CSP Storage Challenge
How Netflix Is Ruining Cloud Computing
Where Cloud Security Falls Short
Follow Feds To The Cloud
Google Strengthens Cloud Platform
Why IT Is Struggling To Build Private Clouds
The choice is an easy one for IT departments that want to implement the most sophisticated virtual machine migration and management tools. It's VMware. VMware's vSphere consists of several technologies that provide live migration, disaster recovery protection, power management and automatic resource balancing for data centers. Microsoft is nipping at the heels of VMware in the big enterprise space. But VMware edges out Microsoft when it comes to advanced cloud management features such as network and storage virtualization with the release of vCloud Hybrid Service.
Image credit: VMware
RECOMMENDED READING:
VMware Hybrid Cloud Plans: Time For Amazon Answer
Amazon Expands Private Cloud-Like Options
Cloud Survey Has Warning For Amazon
Enterprise Data Centers: A Buyer's Market
Meeting The MSP/CSP Storage Challenge
How Netflix Is Ruining Cloud Computing
Where Cloud Security Falls Short
Follow Feds To The Cloud
Google Strengthens Cloud Platform
Why IT Is Struggling To Build Private Clouds
The bring-your-own-device (BYOD) trend is already a headache for IT departments that don't support multiple platforms. As more services head to the cloud, what IT supports becomes a bigger deal. Can employees access cloud apps and services via their Android or iOS phone or tablet? Historically, VMware has been platform agnostic, where Microsoft has a track record of being less accommodating to non-Windows devices. The BYOD advantage goes to VMware when it comes to cloud service compatibility.
Image credit: VMware
RECOMMENDED READING:
VMware Hybrid Cloud Plans: Time For Amazon Answer
Amazon Expands Private Cloud-Like Options
Cloud Survey Has Warning For Amazon
Enterprise Data Centers: A Buyer's Market
Meeting The MSP/CSP Storage Challenge
How Netflix Is Ruining Cloud Computing
Where Cloud Security Falls Short
Follow Feds To The Cloud
Google Strengthens Cloud Platform
Why IT Is Struggling To Build Private Clouds
The odds are good that your next customer is your previous customer. That's why battle lines are being drawn between Microsoft and VMware over keeping existing customers and stealing the others. Both are in a unique position. Microsoft controls about 70% of the server operating system market. Meanwhile, VMware owns about 70% of the virtual servers market. As data center virtualization opportunities dry up and hybrid cloud services bloom, both Microsoft and VMware are betting on their own customer retention and the other side to defect.
Image credit: Scott Sauer (www.virtualinsanity.com)
RECOMMENDED READING:
VMware Hybrid Cloud Plans: Time For Amazon Answer
Amazon Expands Private Cloud-Like Options
Cloud Survey Has Warning For Amazon
Enterprise Data Centers: A Buyer's Market
Meeting The MSP/CSP Storage Challenge
How Netflix Is Ruining Cloud Computing
Where Cloud Security Falls Short
Follow Feds To The Cloud
Google Strengthens Cloud Platform
Why IT Is Struggling To Build Private Clouds
VMware's hybrid cloud offering, vCloud Hybrid Service, is part of its new hybrid cloud services unit, expected to be a major new focus. The offering lets companies migrate their VMware virtualized workloads to a public cloud, saving money via shared equipment. It's a move that will let VMware customers use the familiar vSphere management console to create virtual networks that connect private and public clouds and manage them as one entity.
Windows Azure provides both PaaS and IaaS services. Windows Server 2012 with System Center 2012 can be used to power customers' private clouds and tie them to Microsoft Azure public cloud services. But VMware has carried the process further with capacity management and greater operations automation between the on-premises and external cloud environments.
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons
RECOMMENDED READING:
VMware Hybrid Cloud Plans: Time For Amazon Answer
Amazon Expands Private Cloud-Like Options
Cloud Survey Has Warning For Amazon
Enterprise Data Centers: A Buyer's Market
Meeting The MSP/CSP Storage Challenge
How Netflix Is Ruining Cloud Computing
Where Cloud Security Falls Short
Follow Feds To The Cloud
Google Strengthens Cloud Platform
Why IT Is Struggling To Build Private Clouds

Tags:

Data Centers

Cloud Infrastructure

Search form

VMware Vs. Microsoft: 8 Cloud Battle Lines

Tags: