Free Microsoft downloads cost in the long run, VMware says

Global virtualisation provider VMware warned against downloading free software from companies such as Microsoft as it will cost more money in the long run.

VMware Australia and New Zealand managing director Paul Harapin said companies such as Microsoft do not give software away for free out of the goodness of their hearts, “they don’t make money on free applications, so you know they are making money somewhere else. Nothing is free.” (VMWare's opinion notwithstanding, NBR does rather like Microsoft's free security software.)

As Microsoft diversifies its core business into virtualisation it is directly competing with server and desktop virtualisation giants such as VMware.

But Mr Harapin defended VMware's position saying Microsoft was not “even close to what we are doing today. Businesses are still investing with us."

He said a few years ago, VMware software decreased in popularity due to free application offers. But those very same businesses were returning to VMware with all sorts of problems such as redundant servers and needing virtualised desktops.

VMware chief technology office and senior vice president of research and development Stephen Herrod attended the conference from San Francisco, he said Australia and New Zealand were impressive in how they "punched above their weight" in global commerce. He added New Zealand businesses were amongst the world’s most innovative in their use of technology

Mr Herrod, who is in charge of developing VMware’s new technologies and collaborations, said VMware’s new generation vSphere product was more “elastic” than its predecessor and allows computers to “talk to each other” or collaborate information.

“In many ways this is a return to old day centralised computing, desktops as personalised devices. This can be very useful (vShpere technology) if you have a call centre offshore but the information needs to be sent and stored in the country where the core businesses is.

“As a whole we are trying to make IT more efficient and more simple, to make users' lives easier. A key factor is management.”

Mr Herrod said businesses around the world were struggling to manage increases in IT requirements, energy and cooling costs. He said cloud computing offered businesses a lot of benefits such as reductions in power consumption and a reduction in real estate requirements.

The technology can be used for any type of business, Melbourne IT is currently using virtualisation to build and maintain the website for the Melbourne Cup, which needs a high capacity of bandwidth for a specific period of time and information that is stored away from the site. Mr Herrod said such technology would be perfect for the Olympics to help cope with logistics and data management.

“Growing companies no longer need to move across infrastructure platforms, with vCloud, companies can grow through technology with the flick of a switch. VMware entered the market 11.5 years ago, we know as much about desktop solutions as anyone does.

“We want to drive down the cost of storage together with our partners and to bring the cost down through cloud computing. Storage is expensive but if you outsource through virtualisation to a third party administrator, costs will be reduced. Businesses don’t need to invest in additional infrastructure.”

Mr Herrod said in the future consumers rather than just businesses would we using the technology, especially through virtualised mobile phones - a next generation of virtualisation.

“Instead of having a smartphone that can only run one specific application, you have a virtualised phone that can run all applications. VMware is currently in discussions with providers on this,” he said.

The two-day virtualisation conference is the largest IT event in Australasia. More than 3000 delegates from New Zealand and Australia attended the two-day conference. About 65 exhibitions, such are large software and infrastructure vendors including EMC, Cisco, IBM, Telstra attended and showcased in the exhibition centre.