VMware To Give Away Hypervisor: The battle has begun of virtulization dominance

VMware has launched its first counter-attack to Microsoft's pricing structure for its virtualization products, announcing that ESXi, its lightweight hypervisor, is going to be given away for free. The market is full of confusion and questions asked why the former CEO and founder Diane Greene resigned and moved on even if the growth of WMWare is almost 50% for this year. Furthermore, the new CEO Paul Maritz has announced ESXi, its lightweight hypervisor to be free of charge.

When I look back 20 years in this software and IT business, I have to say that the change in the business models is not gradual, it is almost like tsunami, where things change in a profound way without a return back. WMWare has been the king on the hill for long and now with the market gorilla Microsoft with its own almost free virtualization software product, the game has changed forever. WMWare will not be the same ever more. There might not be too much change in the next few months, but a year or two years from now, you will see what really happened.

Based on the Redmond Channel News, Maritz has already put spending freeze of hiring, except for strategic positions. We all know what that means in the long run. However, change is good, change is healthy and change could also mean success in the long run. Humans are lazy for change and this will force WMWare to innovarte and find new business models.

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