This content, published last Friday on the VMWare website, focuses on the recent changes made by Microsoft in the terms of its license for virtual machines, Windows XP, Vista and the virtualization specifications.
The changes “limit users’ flexibility and freedom in choosing virtualization software by limiting who can run their software and how they do it,” according to VMware. The virtualization company also indicates that Microsoft is directing its users to use its virtualization products with key products such as Windows, Exchange, SQL Server, and Active Directory.
The demand in the field of virtualization has suffered a significant explosion in recent months, where VMware profits have reached $ 232 million in the last quarter of the year, representing a 100 percent increase over the same quarter from the previous year. The company, which has an 80 percent market share, must also face new competitors, such as Virtual Iron, SWSoft, XenSource and Parallels.
As VMware argues, Microsoft’s way of competing is to tilt the playing field in its direction by changing the way users can virtualize their products.
Microsoft is releasing its own desktop and server virtualization products, which are currently available for free and are also beginning to integrate into the operating system, a strategy similar to that used with browsers and media players. Steve Ballmer stated at a conference that the company “would compete very aggressively with VMware.”
However, the company has denied that the changes in the license terms are part of a competitive strategy, but has been established to prevent users from getting more out of their products that they have paid for.
In its White Paper VMware identifies seven specific aspects of antitrust behavior, including the restriction on the support of virtualized products, restrictions on running Microsoft virtual machines on third-party virtualization software, restrictions on the virtual machine mobility, a ban on desktop virtualization software, and secrecy around virtualization specifications.
