VMworld, VMware, and Backup: Has VMware Peaked?

It’s amazing how much buzz VMware and EMC have generated around VMworld. Each year I’ve wondered how it could get bigger – and each year it has.

Mark Bowker had an interesting post at NetworkWorld entitled “VMworld 2012: Has VMware Peaked?”  He calls out that ESG’s yearly IT spending survey calls out that server virtualization is the number one priority for IT, but that lack of budget is the primary factor from further adoption. Mark indirectly references the vRAM licensing mistake from VMware and noted he was confident that Microsoft would cut into VMware’s market share.

I agree with Mark about market share, but I see some promising moves by VMware . The company recently reversed its much reviled vRAM licensing scheme. I think this is a positive indication of future success – when VMware put something out there that was universally hated, they eventually saw the error of their ways and changed their prior decision.)

What I’d like to see is VMware make a further licensing change around restricting its VADP interface for free (unlicensed) ESXi. I think that with Microsoft Hyper-V allowing truly free access to its VSS interface for backup, that VMware would be wise to reverse their decision made years ago on this policy. This would allow IT staff in smaller installations to use Unitrends to use its Free Edition backup (up to 4 virtual machines) without having to pay for a VMware essentials license. In essence, this would bring VMware to at least parity with Microsoft with respect to backup.

This gets to exactly Mark’s point in his Network World article, to wit

How will VMware guide customers that want to deploy Microsoft Hyper-V, and ultimately what will VMware do to slow or stop Hyper-V adoption while navigating a positive revenue trajectory.

I’d like to see a great fight between these two virtualization giants. How about you?