Microsoft, VMware bring out the brass knuckles
Enterprise IT is boring ... except when it gets lowdown and dirty. LIke it's starting to between Microsoft and VMware. Last week, Microsoft announced a "vision and strategy to accelerate virtualization adoption." We could relay the details, but they're full of jargon like "System Center Virtual Machines Manager (SCVMM)" and "RPD protocol for VDI environments." So go here for that. The best way to understand tech jargon like this is to see how companies pump up their sales guys for battle, since everyone knows sales guys are thick as rocks and must be told things in small, English-language words. Here are excerpts from a leaked VMware memo:
First, VMWare commands its sales team to call the Microsoft announcement a "desperate" "hodge-podge":
Microsoft announced a hodge-podge of items related to virtualization in a desperate attempt to make it look like it had a new, coherent vision and strategy for virtualization...
MSFT includes many recycled items in the announcement to make it look substantive. In actuality, they are just rehashes of old items. Microsoft is not delivering anything new, substituting marketing in place of real substance...
The new items are a collection of loosely connected pieces thrown together to look like a coherent virtualization plan. Microsoft is still talking vision...
Then, the sales team is told to insinuate that Microsoft's advancements mean it will soon end its partnership with and cease to support VMWare rival Citrix:
Microsoft's announcement introduces new conflicts into the Microsoft-Citrix business partnership and begs the question "When will Microsoft dump Citrix and take all of the business for itself?" Is this just a partnership of convenience for Microsoft until it ships its own product?
Tell your prospects that are considering Citrix, that MSFT will soon cut Citrix out of the loop ... and Citrix is allowing it to happen.
New Conflict #1: Microsoft System Center or Citrix XenServer for Management. This declaration hits at the heart of Citrix's stated business model for virtualization — to generate revenue from the management of Windows virtual machines with Citrix XenCenter. System Center and XenCenter are clearly competitors.
New Conflict #2: Calista acquisition creates more direct competition with Citrix SpeedScreen (ICA). This acquisition strikes at Citrix's core business since ICA is Citrix's key differentiator and competes with RDP.