VMware Claims Microsoft Is ‘Rigging’ Virtualization Market

By David Worthington

March 15, 2007 —

EMC subsidiary VMware nailed its proverbial theses to the door at the end of February, when it published a white paper accusing Microsoft of underhanded tactics and conspiring to freeze competitors out of the virtualization software market. Microsoft denies the accusations and vows that it will keep its software interoperable.

The white paper, released Feb. 27, alleges that Microsoft is restricting customers’ flexibility to run the virtualization software of their choice by “limiting who can run their software and how they can run it.”

The message: Microsoft is generating dependency on its products.

VMware’s accusations are premised on Microsoft’s decision to restrict access to proprietary virtualization APIs to certain partners—in particular, Novell—and adoption of licensing conditions that limit virtual machine portability, especially in the use of Microsoft’s VHD virtual hard disk format. The APIs orchestrate communication between Windows itself and what will eventually become Longhorn’s hypervisor, which manages resources for multiple virtual machines. VMware claims that Microsoft is not permitting the APIs to be used by other virtualization software vendors and open source projects.

API SHARING
Mike Neil, general manager for virtualization at Microsoft, countered the accusation in his blog, writing: “To encourage interoperability, we openly share technology and have published a set of APIs [announced at the June 2006 WinHEC conference] for all our commercially available virtualization products today and provided documentation on APIs for the hypervisor that will be part of the next version of Windows Server, code-named Longhorn.”

Neil claimed that Microsoft will publish the APIs publicly, in beta form.

The white paper claims that restrictions placed on the VHD format prevent system images from being run outside of Microsoft’s Virtual Server environment. Language in Microsoft’s licensing backs up the assertion that customers are barred from using its VHDs under anything other than Virtual Server and Virtual PC.

Beyond the shrinkwrap license, screenshot evidence presented in the white paper reveals that VHDs are configured to deactivate if they are run under other virtualization products. The white paper portrays it as an “aggressive mechanism” that will “force users to run virtual machines on Microsoft products, essentially undermining customers’ choice.”

A VIRTUAL RUCKUS
Another chilling effect, in VMware’s evaluation, is that Windows virtual appliances will not run under any virtualization platform other than Microsoft’s. VMware has proposed an open industry standard for virtual storage devices known as Virtual Machine Disk Format, but Microsoft has not embraced VMDF, choosing instead to promote VHD.

Customers and ISVs are forbidden by the Virtual Server 2005 Release 2 license from translating Microsoft’s VHDs into another virtual machine format. Hardware and software vendors must ship VHDs that are certified by a Microsoft-controlled qualification tool.

“Microsoft believes the best approach for customers lies in establishing a foundation of cooperation between vendors, which is why we strive to regard virtual machines and virtualization technology the same way. Windows Server licensing offers a level playing field to all,” Neil wrote in his team blog.

A recent malicious exploit of Windows Vista’s virtualization layer alerted Microsoft to the downside of virtualization: weaknesses in security and data protection. It is turning to its partners to mend the dents in its platform’s armor.

Other points in the white paper scrutinize Microsoft’s decision to restrict technical assistance for virtualization to its Premier-level support customers. VMware also bemoaned Microsoft’s constraints on desktop virtualization that may limit the mobility of virtual machine transfers.

VMware depicts Microsoft’s licenses as being inflexible, discouraging virtual machine mobility, based on the original Vista license. Initially, Microsoft’s licensing terms for Windows Vista would have been more restrictive than Windows XP had Microsoft not modified the license in response to feedback from PC and hardware users. Customers had been given permission to transfer Vista between machines once, while customers transferring a license to Windows XP Professional were granted an unlimited number of transfers, provided the software was uninstalled from the original machine. Windows Vista retail customers have now been granted similar rights under a modified EULA, while OEM licenses forbid transfer of any kind.

Microsoft has tailored the Windows Vista Enterprise Edition license—available only by volume purchase—to customers interested in virtualization. A single Enterprise license includes the right to be installed on one physical machine and up to four virtual machines that are all on the same device. However, virtualized Vista must operate within confines: The Ultimate and Enterprise editions of Vista cannot use content secured by Microsoft’s digital rights management and content rights management technology. Vista Home Basic and Vista Home Premium may not be virtualized at all. Microsoft attributes these restrictions to security concerns.

MISCONSTRUED INTENTIONS?
In an updated blog entry, Microsoft’s Neil claimed that this is much ado about nothing, suggesting that VMware’s white paper has technical inaccuracies and it misconstrues Microsoft’s intentions.

Going forward, Neil pledged on Microsoft’s behalf that the company will accommodate VMware with a “mutually agreeable solution” addressing the points raised in the white paper.

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