VKernel just saw a battle card from VMware comparing VMware CapacityIQ to the VKernel portfolio of products and was devastated to learn that VMware is aggressively positioning its offering against that of VKernel. Although this may come as a surprise to VKernel, VMware is interested in selling a complete virtualization stack which includes capacity management. And there is no point to complain about it. To compete on the VMware platform against VMware is extremely difficult, so there are several strategies:

1. Diversify virtualization platform support

Besides VMware, there are many other vendors such as Citrix, Microsoft, Oracle and Parallels offering competitive virtualization solutions. These vendors provide ISV partners with more opportunities to offer complimentary solutions. However, given that VMware is still the leader in the virtualization space, supporting the VMware platform is essential even if it means having some overlap with the platform vendor.

2. Find whitespace in the VMware management stack

This is becoming very challenging since VMware is determined to provide a complete management stack for its platform - there is very little whitespace for partners. VMware is not moving up the stack just to grow revenues - it is also doing so to sustain revenues since the hypervisor is a commodity.

3. Innovate and differentiate

VMware is a massive company with significant resources behind its products. There is no point competing with brute force sales and marketing against VMware - this battle is over before it even starts. VKernel is just burning its precious venture capital trying to do so. Instead, it's critical to innovate more quickly and build differentiated offerings that go beyond what VMware is able to deliver. And to do so in a sustainable fashion.

VKernel is simply witnessing standard competitive pressures from a platform vendor. There is no surprise that VMware is showing prospects side-by-side comparisons versus VKernel. One of these battle cards probably exists for just about every vendor that has overlap with VMware.

So what have we done at Lanamark? First, Lanamark diversified and started supporting all the leading platforms, not just VMware. We are working with Citrix, Microsoft, Oracle, Parallels and VMware partners who are delivering desktop and data center optimization (and virtualization) solutions and services. Second, Lanamark provides unified instrumentation, analytics and system design capabilities that span across applications, users, workloads and the underlying IT infrastructure (both physical and virtual, from the desktop to the data center). Finally, Lanamark is innovating at a much faster pace than the team responsible for VMware Capacity Planner, providing VMware partners with unprecedented ability to accelerate design and delivery of optimized VMware solutions.

VMware partners world-wide continue to choose Lanamark Suite because Lanamark provides superior product capabilities, better field support and unparalleled responsiveness to feedback from both customers and partners. Lanamark is not feeling the love from VMware but we are certainly feeling the love from VMware partners, customers and prospects using our products every day to design and optimize VMware data centers.