Microsoft set itself up for a battle with VMware when it entered the hypervisor market with a freebie, Hyper-V, against VMware’s ESX. Now VMware is fighting back, taking the fight to Microsoft in places outside of just the hypervisor range. ServerWatch has the blow-by-blow details.
It may have happened a week ago, but VMware’s announced plans to acquire Zimbra continues to be the biggest news on the virtualization front.
One of the main reasons for the acquisition as VMware CTO, as Steve Herrod noted in his blog, The Console, is that Zimbra expand VMware’s vCloud software portfolio.
Thus, in an effort to differentiate itself, VMware has begun moving up the stack. This not only solidifies its cloud strategy, but it also takes the company into new territory, and it deepens its competition with Microsoft. Now it’s no longer just a case of VMware ESX vs. Hyper-V, it’s also a case of Zimbra vs. Exchange.
This, VMware believes, sets the stage for the future. Down the road, as VMware Chief Operating Officer Tod Nielsen told eWEEK last week “it’s going to come down to us and Microsoft.”