http://cloudcomputing.disqus.com/enWed, 08 Oct 2008 09:36:17 -0000http://blog.jamesurquhart.com/2008/10/vmwares-most-important-cloud-research.html#comment-2935511<p>Ken/James... good points.</p><p>That question of what will VMware look like in 5 years is key. With being acquired, founders leaving and competition nipping at there heels, will VMware stay as they are? Will the hypervisor remain their core business? I guess time will tell.</p><p>Lance</p>lancewWed, 08 Oct 2008 09:36:17 -0000http://blog.jamesurquhart.com/2008/10/vmwares-most-important-cloud-research.html#comment-2923846<p>Nice observation James, as always. But if I stood in VMware's shoes, I'd gladly accept some "channel conflict" in order to lock-up the market. My view is that the deals with service providers VMware is making is a shrewd approach to capture the entire "food chain" top-to-bottom, and ensure that they use VMware technology. For example, while VMware is most popular in enterprises, technologies like Parallels' Virtuozzo is most popular with MSPs. The VMware move is an attempt to ensure VMware EVerywhere. So what if they tick-off some channel partners.</p><p>My personal feeling: the end-users (enterprises &amp; MSPs alike) need to wise-up and ensure that they have a multi-vendor virtualization and management solution from the get-go. It's gonna happen anyway; stave off single-vendor risk asap.</p>kennyoTue, 07 Oct 2008 17:03:52 -0000