VMware potentially changed the virtualisation software market by announcing that the upgrade to their GSX Server product would be made available for free to anyone that wants it.

On Monday of this week, VMware, long considered the market leader for virtualisation software, potentially changed the virtualisation software market by announcing that the upgrade to their GSX Server product would be renamed VMware Server and made available for free to anyone that wants it. The actions behind this announcement are significant and contain proof that virtualisation software is going mainstream.

Why free?
Through their decision to make the server product free, VMware has conceded that competition in this space is increasing and they are taking steps to keep people interested in their platform. Microsoft, the 800-pound gorilla in any market, has been quite aggressive in their efforts to convince customers to use their virtualisation software -- Virtual Server 2005 R2 -- which, from a functionality perspective, is on par with the current version of VMware GSX. However, Microsoft's solution carries a price tag of only US$99 for a server with up to four processors. In contrast, VMware GSX costs over US$2,000 to support a system with four processors. Microsoft also plans to release an updated version of Virtual Server later this year that adds support for multiple processors inside a virtual machine, technology that has not yet made its way to the currently shipping VMware GSX product.

On the open-source front, VMware is also facing Xen, which is not as much of a threat as Microsoft due to the Xen software's current inability to adequately support virtual machines running Windows. However, in the Linux arena, Xen is definitely gaining mindshare, if not market share and the price tag for Xen is $0. Further, once Xen is more stable and is capable of running Windows as seamlessly as it does Linux, VMware will have a serious open source competitor on their hands.

VMware does have other competitors, including Virtuozzo and Parallels' Workstation, but, while Virtuozzo and VMware accomplish similar goals, they do so completely differently. Parallels' Workstation is a relatively new product that is still finding its way in the market and is not yet aimed at the data center. OpenVZ, an open source product with a subset of Virtuozzo's features, is also available and being used by more people every day.

The "gateway drug"
VMware GSX Server, Microsoft Virtual Server, and Xen all require a fat host operating system, such as Windows or Linux, on which the virtualisation software is installed. VMware's other server product, ESX, uses its own kernel and installs right onto the "bare metal", or right to the server with no intermediary operating system to eat up resources that could be better utilised by allocating it to virtual machines. In fact, most of VMware's revenue comes from selling ESX Server, its related software, and management tools for the server products. With the commoditisation of products in GSX's market space, VMware likely would have begun losing sales to Microsoft's lower-cost product anyway.

Now, by making the GSX Server product free, VMware can make the case that customers have no reason not to try virtualisation in their environments. And, once a customer sees the benefits, VMware can start to pitch the advantages of ESX Server over VMware Server, sell support contracts for VMware Server, and, once the capability is available, sell management software that can manage virtual machines running on VMware Server.

Beware vendors claiming "free"
Although VMware Server is free to download, test, and deploy, it may not be totally free to run in perpetuity. VMware plans to sell support plans for VMware Server that are anticipated to cost US$350 - $400 per installation. These plans will be made available once VMware is out of beta and released, currently expected to be Q2 of 2006. Now, read this excerpt from the VMware Server FAQ, right from VMware's site:

"Q: Will patches and new releases for VMware Server be provided for free in the future?

A: Generally available VMware Server patches, minor and major releases will be provided by VMware on a regular basis only to customers that have purchased a VMware Server Support and Subscription contract. At a later time, VMware may, at its discretion, include the functionality improvements contained in these patches, minor and major releases in the freely downloadable product."

If you don't buy a support contract, don't expect to have access to all of the updates and enhancements made to VMware Server.

New features in VMware Server
Just because it's free, don't think that VMware Server is a slouch when it comes to what it can do. Keep in mind that VMware Server is also considered an upgrade for GSX Server, which has not seen a significant release in well over a year. During that time, VMware has been working on a lot of new features which have already made their way into VMware Workstation, VMware's desktop product. Many of these features are now finding a home in VMware Server, including:

• The ability to assign multiple physical host processors (up to 2) to a virtual machine. This makes virtual machines running in VMware Server capable of supporting more demanding workloads. VMware calls this service "Virtual SMP". Virtual SMP, with support for up to two processors is standard in VMware Server and can be purchased as an add-on for ESX.
• Support for 64-bit guest operating systems. Keep in mind that, in the not-too-distance future, some server products, such as Microsoft Exchange 12, will require a 64-bit platform. With VMware Server's 64-bit support, there will be no worries about whether virtualisation software will be able to support an organisation's needs. VMware Server supports all of the currently available x64 editions of Windows (Vista x64 support is still in beta) as well as a number of 64-bit Linux distributions, including Red Hat Linux 3, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9/10, Ubuntu 5.10, and Solaris 10 (also in beta).
• Beta support for Intel's Virtualization Technology. Both Intel and AMD are hard at work on extending the x86 platform to be more virtualisation-friendly. VMware Server supports Intel's effort in this area and will likely eventually support Pacifica, AMD's hardware-assisted virtualisation feature.
• The current version of VMware Server cannot be managed by VMware's VirtualCenter management tool. However, this support is slated to be included in a future edition of the product.

What does it mean for VMware and competitors?
VMware has indicated that the intent behind making VMware Server a free product was not a response to market pressures, but was simply a way to open VMware products to a new class of users. Regardless of the reasons behind the move, here are some thoughts regarding the virtualisation market and the impact that VMware's actions will have.

VMware
It's hard to believe that VMware will actually lose any money as a result of this announcement. GSX Server was not their primary source of revenue and the position of VMware Server as an entry-level virtualisation platform can only help to drive sales of services and additional products. VMware has indicated that VMware Server will eventually be supported under VirtualCenter, which customers will have to pay for. Further, once customers test the virtualisation waters with VMware Server, they may be more willing to consider the ROI that could be achieved through ESX's more efficient use of hardware resources.

As Xen gains maturity and a mainstream audience and Microsoft gets their hypervisor product into gear, VMware will begin to feel more pinched, although VMware has, by far, the most advanced management tools of the crowd.

Microsoft
At US$99, Microsoft is already practically giving away Virtual Server 2005 R2 and has been playing catch-up on the virtualisation front for the past couple of years. With R2 and the upcoming 2006 release of the product, Microsoft's product will have a feature set comparable to VMware Server, including support for Linux guests. However, Microsoft does not yet have the powerful virtual server management tools provided by VMware, making it less attractive for larger organisations.

Expect Microsoft to lower the price of Virtual Server to $0 at some point to match VMware's play. After all, Microsoft will still make money on the sale of Virtual Server since a Windows licence is required for the host system. Microsoft wants to keep Virtual Server on a level playing field with VMware Server until they release their hypervisor-based virtualisation product sometime within the next couple of years.

Xen
In a heterogeneous data centre, the current version of Xen -- 3.0 -- can't hold its own against VMware since Xen cannot reasonably support Windows hosts. However, as Xen matures, develops better management tools, and gains the ability to run Windows through Intel's VT and AMD's Pacifica technologies, expect Xen to become a more serious contender and threat.

How will VMware's announcement affect the open source Xen project? Probably not too much, although some people testing virtualisation with Xen may now give VMware a shot, too.

SWsoftVirtuozzo
This is one virtualisation product that I have not yet had the opportunity to evaluate, so I can't really comment on how it compares with VMware.

A good thing
To be sure, VMware's release of VMware Server as a free product is a good thing for customers that want to be able to truly evaluate virtualisation in their environments. It's also a good thing for VMware, a company that has long led the pack in the virtualisation market. Although the company insists that their decision was not market motivated, the decision does show that the company continues to be open minded to making changes that will help maintain and increase the market that they have built over the past few years.

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