Two weeks ago I was in San Francisco, US, attending VMworld 2010 – the ultimate event to learn about new trends in virtualisation and cloud computing. The conference was a big attraction but an ambush marketing campaign from Microsoft stopped me in my tracks.

In a straightforward letter (published as an advertisement in local dailies) Brad Anderson, Corporate VP, Server and Tools Business, Microsoft warned VMware customers that signing long-term enterprise license agreements can chain them for years to the unpredictable, often self-serving development schedule of an IT vendor—to the detriment of the customer's unique needs and priorities. Yes, that was Microsoft making the statement!

VMware defected the shot well. Calling it a ‘sincere form of flattery’, Paul Maritz, CEO of VMware made a mockery of the warning in his keynote address. “Microsoft to talk about lock-in is a severe case of the pot calling the kettle black," he said.

It wasn’t just a coincidence that at VMworld 2010 VMware announced a slew of management and security products, directly taking on many of Microsoft's flagship products.

Microsoft probably had an inkling of what was in store. Microsoft has been offering public cloud from its Azure platform-as-a-service (PaaS) offering and SQL Server, Exchange and Sharepoint as Software as a Service (SaaS) offerings, competing directly with VMware. But, clearly, VMware's leadership position in the virtualisation space has raised its hackles. Maybe that's the reason for the desperate tone in the campaign.

Is VMware worried? When I spoke to Maritz, he said: “Microsoft is a company with enormous resources and they sense the same changes in the IT industry as we do.” (To know more, read the interview with Paul Maritz in the 21st September issue)

In the end, this is all about who's going to be the big dog in this market.

rahul.mani@9dot9.in