Matt Asay just posted an interesting article about how virtualization products such as Microsoft’s Hyper-V could potentially make VMware turn out like Novell. His article has a point. While VMware is widely known as one of the best virtualization products out there, it could change in the future because of products like Hyper-V, and it’s not because Hyper-V is a better product; It’s because companies will often go for products that are “good enough” for their purpose.
If a company simply wants to run a few virtualized machines to cut down a little bit on costs, they may not be interested in some of the high-end features VMware’s products offer. Or if they are interested in them, they may decide it isn’t absolutely necessary in the end.
This is not to say it is all over, though. And VMware has already taken some steps to combat their competition. And what it all comes down to is that VMware’s core business is in virtualization, while other companies just have virtualization products as a complement to their existing products and can therefore afford to have lower pricing.
Definitely check this article out.