Swords are drawn: Microsoft, Citrix are not sponsoring VMworld 2009!
By Tarry Singh at 25 August, 2009, 4:33 pm
Update1 Aug 26th 2009: Citrix PR just contacted me with the following statement thus justifying that it was impossible for Citrix to sponsor with the rules VMware had imposed. Clearly VMware has been labeled a “proprietary vendor” while Microsoft, Novell, Redhat, Citrix and even Oracle (to some extent) are mixin’ and hashin’.
Also noteworthy is that Microsoft, if any bit of laziness has been there on its part, has woken up for sure. It will wield its full muscle power in the coming 6 quarters as its desktop domain gets challenged. VMware, not making too many friends in it’s own eco-system, stands a chance of losing its partners’ “only-VMware” love to Microsoft as well. We don’t blame VMware for its mass-aggregation tactics where its picking every bit of “extra” that a 3rd party offers to provide a unified solution but irked 3rd party suppliers will have to re-consider their faith.
And c’mon lets not be stupid. We loved Novell so much in the past, today I am writing business cases for customers who want to get off Novell as there is no support and the pervasive Windows environments such as Exchange, ADS, Sharepoint are named without hesitation. VMware does seem to realize that Apps is the future [no-brainer] but time will tell how much they are willing to “truly” understand Apps, they are after all Systems guys.
…We actually did not back out of being a sponsor at the show - VMworld’s new guidelines for next week’s show actually prohibited us from sponsoring. While we wish we had the opportunity to sponsor VMworld as we have had in the past, it’s their proprietary event, and we will comply with whatever policies they impose.
Well…All I can say to all the folks out there is: “Grow up!”
Microsoft and Citrix have both served as “gold sponsors” at past VMworld conferences, including the September 2008 show in Las Vegas and the February 2009 show in France.
But for next week’s conference, Microsoft and Citrix are no longer sponsors and are listed merely as exhibitors. Additionally, Microsoft claims new restrictions on vendors will prevent it from demonstrating its System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 at VMworld, and Citrix claims VMware is forcing it to reschedule a Citrix Technology Professionals summit meeting so it doesn’t overlap with VMworld.
VMware denies that its sponsor and exhibitor policies are anything out of the ordinary for an industry conference, and has said it does not aim to limit the rights of competing vendors to exhibit technology at VMworld.
Still, a spokesperson for Citrix claimed in an e-mail to Network World that “VMworld guidelines prohibited Citrix from being a sponsor.”
“VMworld is a proprietary event run by one vendor,” Citrix vice president of marketing Kim Woodward said in a statement. “At the end of the day, they have every right to change the rules in any way they wish. Citrix respects that and will fully comply with the terms of our show contract with them. When it comes down to it, if customers want a more open event, they will have to give that feedback directly to VMware or vote with their feet by attending other shows that don’t restrict competitors.”
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