Does My Dachshund Know More About Virtualization Than You?
Virtualization Critical Evaluation - Chapter 02
My dachshund, well Dachshunds, I have two actually, one is quite old, 17 and wise, in dachshund terms, where the other is younger, but not a puppy, 11 years old, and even smarter. At times I think either of them has more common sense than most strategic theorists in the information technology industry. No, am not talking about Gartner, although I can understood why you would think that at first. Gartner as an organization has more individuals that can state the obvious today, but guess at the future, than I could believe anyone could have. But as I said, I am not talking about Gartner. No, I am not talking about VMware. Buzz, buzz, wrong, buzz, wrong, but thank you for playing. Please play again. Anyone guess Microsoft? I am, talking about Microsoft. Yes, Microsoft.
If there was a Raspberry award (Razzie) or something similar for the information technology industry, oh, let us say, the Frozen-Or Just-Again Reboot (FOJAR) Award, then Microsoft would not only receive just about every FOJAR, in just about every category, but would of course anyone not be surprised when Apple Computer was the most significant sponsor. I can just see the trailers for the show now… Watch the FOJARs, on iTunes! Of course the most memorable FOJAR won by Microsoft this year was for the most significant missing feature in a modern hypervisor, in Hyper-V, the not-so-transparent-almost-not-really-real-time virtual instance migration! Talk about the power is on, but no one is computing!
Why did Microsoft after more than two(2) years, no three(3) years, release Hyper-V without the single most significant feature that everyone doing virtualization is chasing? A feature that is 100 percent identical to VMware VMotion? Even my Dachshunds know this was not a good idea. In fact, it is little better than a joke among virtualization architects that I know. But, I think I understand why it happened, Microsoft is afraid of looking like they are standing still compared to VMware (http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9980571-7.html, not the article, in the comments on the same page… from Penguinisto is classic). Another reason, which just makes the perception of Microsoft is in fact doing little more than standing still in the hypervisor market, is that Microsoft has completely lost its ability to innovate?
Yes, I know others have said this before, but it has never been more obvious than now, true? I see little improvement in Hyper-V to Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2, or even Connectix Server which Microsoft purchased, what, some five(5) years ago. The real surprise is that Gartner has not said this at least twice in 2008, nor noted it as a strategic fact, cough, prediction for 2009? Talk about missing the obvious?
Of course, not commenting on Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM), would be a mistake on my part, a fact of which both of my Dachshunds have just reminded me, would be as unforgivable was running out of dog chews over the weekend. Last time we, I mean I, failed to immediately go the store and restock up on dog chews, you would not believe the dirty looks I got from my Dachshunds. And as any one that has a Dachshund knows, Dachshunds are masters of the dirty look, that-do-it-now-or-else no nonsense stare. But I digress. Obviously Microsoft is ignoring the stares from those of us that love virtualization? Maybe not completely? As I have said before, Microsoft has a true threat to VMware with SCVMM, aimed at the VMware strategic flagship, VirtualCenter. However, I have to disagree with my esteemed Dachshunds, SCVMM without a VMotion comparable feature, read comparable as transparent to end-user migration? Never mind Storage VMotion? And if Microsoft SCVMM does not scale better than VirtualCenter? Well, Microsoft still gets two FOJARs, the first for Hyper-V, the second for SCVMM if it does not nail VirtualCenter to the wall. No, Microsoft gets three(3) FOJARs. Why? Well, Microsoft gets the hat-trick FOJAR because they have taken more than 60 months to go almost absolutely nowhere in the fastest era of virtualization adoption the information technology industry has ever seen.
Gartner, how in the world did your crystal ball miss this one? Maybe Microsoft will create time travel? So Microsoft can innovate in the future, but release to the market today? No, we already established Microsoft does not innovate. Hey, maybe they can buy time travel from someone in the future… Yeah, that is it!
Add comment July 16th, 2008
