The VAR Guy

Thousands of channel partners, IT managers and virtualization pros will gather at VMworld 2010 (Aug. 30-Sept. 2, San Francisco). So, what should solutions providers expect to see at the massive virtualization event? The short answer: Bidding Wars (HP vs. Dell for 3Par), merger rumors and plenty of competitive posturing from VMware and its rivals. Here are eight trends The VAR Guy intends to track at VMworld.

Here’s what’s worth watching…

1. Cisco In the Spotlight

Sure, this is a VMware-hosted conference. But networking giant Cisco Systems hopes to steal the spotlight. The company will be on stage several times at the conference. And it’s a safe bet Cisco will provide some virtualization updates to the company’s Unified Computing System (UCS) strategy.

2. Oracle Casts a Shadow

Only a couple weeks before VMworld is set to start, Oracle unveiled its virtualization strategy — painting VMware as too narrowly focused. There are also signs that Oracle is preparing a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) strategy. As of Aug. 26, Oracle is not listed as a VMworld sponsor — but Oracle’s virtualization strategy will definitely trigger some chatter on the show floor.

3. KVM Casts A Second Shadow

Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) has been generating plenty of buzz lately. A prime example: Red Hat has essentially bet its virtualization strategy on KVM, hoping Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization (RHEV) and Red Hat Enterprise Linux) deliver a lethal one-two punch against VMware.

But so far, VMware seems to be standing tall. Motley Fool notes that VMware’s stock has risen 158 percent since September 2009. But can VMware continue to climb as rivals like Microsoft, Oracle, Citrix and now Red Hat take shots at the company? Hmmm…

4. Merger Rumors

Back in May 2010, rumors swirled that Novell was soliciting takeover offers. By July 1, some folks speculated that VMware was among the bidders for Novell. What does The VAR Guy think? VMware coupled with Novell SUSE Linux would be an interesting preemptive strike vs potential Red Hat Enterprise Linux/Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization (RHEL/RHEV) competition. But does VMware really want to take on Novell’s other business units? The VAR Guy will dig for answers at VMworld.

5. Microsoft Hyper-V: Taking Market Share From VMware?

During Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC 2010) in July, Microsoft made it clear that the company’s two biggest competitive challenges involved Google and VMware. And Microsoft COO Kevin Turner claimed the company was making competitive gains against VMware. Turner said Microsoft commands 24.4 percent of the virtualization market, up about 6.1 points in recent months. Does Turner have a point or is Microsoft’s Hyper-V fully of hyper hype? Hmmm…

6. VMware’s Next Application Move?

When VMware acquired Zimbra, the open source email system, some skeptics were confused. But The VAR Guy understood VMware’s logic and strategy. Armed with Zimbra, VMware hopes to promote virtualized email appliances that compete against Microsoft Exchange. And on August 1, Zimbra solutions started flowing through VMware’s established channel.

The VAR Guy suspects VMware will pursue more acquisitions on the application front. One possible target: Alfresco, the open source enterprise content management provider. Alfresco competes on some fronts with Microsoft SharePoint…

7. HP vs. Dell for 3Par

Dell acquired 3Par, the storage virtualization specialist. No, wait: Hewlett-Packard presented a surprise, higher bid for 3Par. Hold on a minute: Dell has launched a slightly higher bid for 3Par, as of Aug. 26. Who’s going to win the 3Par bidding war?

It’s too soon to say. But one thing’s for sure: 3Par’s booth should get plenty of foot traction during VMworld, as attendees seek daily — or hourly — updates on the HP vs. Dell bidding war.

8. Upstarts Seek the Spotlight

The VAR Guy’s blogger team has been flooded with VMworld-related announcements. Much like the cloud hype wave, it seems like everyone wants a piece of the virtualization action. Among the noteworthy moves, Contributing Associate Blogger David Courbanou notes:

• Logicalis is revealing  ”Virtualization & Cloud Strategies” to all clients. Mike Martin, Logicalis’ director of cloud computing says…“Combining our own expertise with that of partners like Cisco, HP, IBM, VMware, and Microsoft puts Logicalis [in a good position.]” Hmmm. Can Logicalis dance with all those elephants in the room?
• ePlus Technology is focusing on a 60-minute session that will show off their Advanced Networking of 10GB and Fibre Channel over Ethernet in 10Gb vSphere environments and ‘real world design’. That means it’ll cover common scenarios, and information on hardware implementation, design, cost and management of the whole thing. Key areas they’re focusing on? Healthcare, Financial Services, SMB and more..
• RNA Networks has teamed up with Mellanox Technologies to demo memory virtualization at VMworld. The goal is to show how the combined technologies between the companies can boost virtualized server performance by twelve-times. The demo will show off the new RNA MVX version 2.5 which has now combined with the Mellanox ConnectX-2 40Gb/s InfiniBand adapters. As you guessed, this accelerates applications running in VMware and VMware vSphere.

More Chatter, Please

Anything The VAR Guy missed? Our resident blogger is listening closely for VMworld news, gossip and chatter. Post your comments or send news tips to TheVARguy [at] NineLivesMediaInc [dot] com.

Additional reporting from David Courbanou. Sign up for The VAR Guy’s Newsletter; Webcasts and Resource Center; and via RSS; Facebook; Identi.ca; Twitter and VARtweet.

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