In many respects, Microsoft is a juggernaut, crushing those companies that would stand in the way of its infrastructure or computing options regularly. The world of virtual private servers, however, has become an arena for two companies – Microsoft and VMware.
It can be argued that VMware is the more commonly used platform, as many VPS providers have learned their trade almost exclusively through VMware testing and trials. But as the virtualization market heats up, Microsoft and its Hyper-V solution have begun to make inroads into the established VMware customer base.
This has led to competition on the part of both companies to convince users that they represent the “best of the breed” when it comes to VPS solutions and that their option should be used exclusively. While technology such as Hypervisors have become so common that neither company can make money selling a proprietary brand, vCenter and SCVMM both claim to offer the best integration and the most seamless virtualization experience. Both are also attempting to move slightly cross-platform as SCVMM is able to manage VMware machines, though it is unable to support the latest updates to vCenter.
The notion of single-provider virtualization will continue until one company emerges victorious; neither VMware nor Microsoft shows any indication that they will back down from their established positions. For consumers, this competition means a robust amount of technology available for purchase, so long as they remember that a locked-in solution is not a necessity.
As cloud applications like VMware vCloud and Windows Azure follow in virtualization’s footsteps, this kind of competition should only benefit both companies and technology development as a whole. For now, however, companies need to choose the best provider for their needs, rather than seeking an overall “best in show”.
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