Network Computing is part of the Informa Tech Division of Informa PLC

This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.

Will VM Pricing Topple VMware Juggernaut?: Page 3 of 3

The latest version of XenServer will be manageable from Microsoft's upcoming Systems Center Virtual Machine Manager, while Citrix' XenCenter already supports managing Microsoft hypervisors and virtual machines. Red Hat, on the other hand, faces an uphill battle against VMware; Gartner predicts that Red Hat’s share of the market will only be 2% for 2012.

Nevertheless, the company has aggressively been working to make its virtual environment more manageable and robust. This process is helped by the acquisition of Qumranet, which gave Red Hat kernel-based technology to run on its Linux platform. That makes Red Hat a clear option for Linux shops.

There is other hope for Red Hat, as well. The company is likely to get a boost for its KVM efforts from IBM, HP and Intel, all of which are members of the Open Virtualization Alliance, which is dedicated to encouraging use of open virtualization technology. The established customer bases of these other vendors can only help the spread of Red Hat's virtual environment.

While the future remains uncertain for who will garner the biggest piece of the virtualization pie, definite competition and perceived value will most likely rule the roost in the ever-changing landscape of virtualization. IT managers will have to carefully consider multiple factors before pitching their tent in a single vendor’s camp.

This is the second of a three-part series examining the virtualization market. The first article looked at the virtualization licensing minefield, while the third article will explore network virtualization.

Learn more about Strategy: Storage Virtualization Guide by subscribing to Network Computing Pro Reports (free, registration required).