Does Being First Win the Race?

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I have seen various post over the last couple of weeks about how VMWare is like Novell. I actually did not get what that meant at first but the significantly more I thought about it the far more I believe they could possibly be suitable. When I was in the Navy (about 14 years ago) I was just beginning to understand about networking and servers and every thing was running on Novell. Microsoft Windows Advanced Server was out but nobody applied it. Novell was everywhere and the men and women that ran it had been treated like some kind of nerd gods.

I located myself with a lot of no cost time on my hands due to the truth that I was getting kicked out for medical reasons and I was just waiting on my final paperwork. I ended up helping 1 of the guys that worked on the network where I was based and the strange factor about him was that he was all about Microsoft and their server products. I thought it was cool mainly because he was sticking it to the man and not employing Novell. He built the servers himself and ran all the network cables hidden in the ceiling so nobody else would know he was running a non-Novell network. Even though it was enjoyable because it was some thing new and numerous I was a little let down considering I thought I wasn't understanding about what every person else was and that this Microsoft factor was just crap. One day he just left and "boom" I owned a bunch of Microsoft servers that people today had basically started to use and depend on. I learned what I could by generating tons of mistakes and managed to keep them running. The Navy nonetheless only supported Novell so I had to maintain my stuff all black ops and low key. When the time came for me to finally retire I figured I would get a job doing support for Microsoft servers but I was in Florida and guess what yep, everybody ran Novell. I managed to fake it and get a job anyway and learned fairly quick though also keeping my Microsoft abilities up to date. I was at all times considered a "lower" admin considering that I did not have a CNA (I believe it stands for Certified Novell Administrator ??) certification. I later moved to Texas and to my surprise, no Novell, anyplace. It was all Microsoft and I fit correct in. The intriguing thing to me is that I continually thought Novell was better. A lot of things that produced Microsoft what they are currently came from Novell. Novell got people to commence thinking in terms of servers and networks but in the end Microsoft took it and ran with it. Why? Not really positive but I feel when some thing is so new and revolutionary that it peaks too quickly and the vapor trail behind it is easily filled.

VMWare was about way before folks jumped on the virtualization bandwagon. They deserve the credit for where the business is currently but ten years from now where will they be? We paid for their products a couple of years ago and loved each and every minute of it. There was no competition and they owned the market. Now other products come out that have the similar attributes just with diverse names and everyone is like "I'm not paying these over priced VMWare prices when I can get the identical attributes for cost-free!!!". (Totally free is a topic for one more post)

I think this can be attributed to human nature. We root for the tiny guy and we all hate the significant greedy corporations. VMWare has grow to be "the man" in the virtualization world and people resent them for that. They did not do anything wrong but generate an great item and charge a fair price for it. Their good results will be their downfall. They peaked too quick and you can only burn your brightest for a short time. Individuals will commence to use other vendors not since they are superior, but considering that they are not VMWare. We also hate not having options. We really feel trapped. Consumers, me included, are looking for alternatives to VMWare. Not given that we believe there is something improved out there, we just want to make the choice to use a product ourselves and not feel like we have to use it.

Not sure if VMWare will suffer the exact same fate as Novell, which has completed a very good job of reinventing itself over the years to stay in enterprise, but human nature can not be ignored and the larger some thing gets and the greater it climbs, the only direction to go becomes down. I'm not saying VMWare will go under or anything like that. I'm merely saying that history will not bear in mind these times that the we are in now the very same way we will and that becoming initially does not usually guarantee you the win in the lengthy run.