VMware: Wrong, Wrong, Wrong

VMware has once again proclaimed that the Operating System is dead.  Translation; Microsoft is dead.  However, in the same speech they proclaim that their New/Old VDC OS could become the operating system of the future (if they choose) but that’s not their stated direction.  Translation; Just in case Microsoft pounds us into the ground we have a plan B.

Proclaiming the OS is dead is akin to saying the Mainframe is dead.  Tell that to IBM, they are laughing all the way to the bank.  Interestingly enough, the Mainframe may be the sleeping giant to crash the x86 VM party.  A Virtual Data Center, Cloud Computing, or whatever you want to call it is simply taking commodity hardware and turning into what?  Anyone…Anyone…Anyone, a Mainframe.  Mainframes already have superior memory, CPU, management, and with zVM, virtualization capabilities.

VMware’s idea of an OS for the data center is not new.  Bill Coleman, CEO of Cassatt and the “B” in BEA has been talking about this very subject for years.  His thoughts and ideas may be ahead of their time, but time is quickly catching up to his thinking.  Computing power can not continue to be silo’d or restricted to one form of technology ala VMware VDC-OS.  Have you ever heard of Cassatt, Scalent, eGenera, and more.  Do you think Citrix, Oracle, HP, IBM, and Sun would accept a VMware only world?  I left out Microsoft because VMware believes the OS is dead.  Huh?

What do you do when you are backed into a corner?  You release an upgrade that breaks your install base.  You fire your CEO and begin to lose key personnel.   Hire a Microsoft Executive to become your new CEO because he’ll be out of a job soon.  Pick a fight with the largest software company on earth.  Awake the sleeping giants in IBM, Sun, HP, and more as they want their slice of the pie.  Finally, you bring your most loyal customers to VMworld and proclaim that you are still the king.

Strap on your helmets, take your Dramamine, and fasten your seatbelts because VMware is in for a bumpy ride.  Oh wait, isn’t Google working on this too?