DarkLaser:

VMWare is #1 in the virtualization industry, and even if the others (Xen & Microsoft) do create a product which meets the standards it has set, it has such a foot hold already it will be difficult pass them. An example. Microsoft got their foot in the windowing desktop environment of computers, and even while Apple has what some would call a superior OS, Microsoft continues to dominate.

It is not ho-humming their way along either. They are looking to the future and putting things in place now that will ensure their significant involvement for years and years to come. In response to my concerns of hardware virtualization taking everything away from
it they responded with a quote from their prospectus about their involvement with the development of the hardware which will do virtualization:

“We have established strong relationships with large system vendors, including IBM, HP, Dell, NEC, Fujitsu, Fujitsu-Siemens and Sun, for joint certification and co-development. We also work closely with Intel, AMD and other IHVs to provide input on product development to enable them to deliver hardware advancements that benefit end users. We coordinate with the leading storage and networking vendors to ensure joint interoperability, as well as to enable our software to access their differentiated functionality.” (Source: Page 76 of VMware’s prospectus).

It is not going to be left standing with no ground under them. I believe they will remain #1 in their field for a good long while. I believe the growth of their stock reflects this, and is not simply hype. While there has been unprecedented growth over these last 2 months, I still see this stock having plenty of room to grow. My example is OMTR, who is #1 in their field. Since their IPO about a year and a half ago, are at more than 5x their IPO release price. The reasons why in my mind, are the exact same reasons VMW is doing so well.

Hence I plan to stay in VMW for a while yet, and hope to see its stock price do the same as OMTR.

stock.boon:

OK, I am a CS professor who does research in virtualization. To put in in layman’s terms, VMWare is the new Microsoft as far as operating system technology stands. MSFT used to (and still pretends to) make operating systems that controlled access to hardware for any software
application. It develops software one level below traditional operating systems like Windows and Linux and effectively takes over that control of the hardware, while enabling multiple traditional operating systems to coexist “at the same time on the same machine”.
In other words, it breaks the two-decade-old monopoly that Microsoft had on the hardware access, giving more choice to consumers (both desktop and server).

Now you would ask, well why wouldn’t Microsoft do the same thing it did and maintain its control? The answer is, they’ve been trying for last 5 to 6 years, and not succeeding in coming out with a decent product that works. They first tried to buy it cheap, and didn’t succeed, then they bought Connectix, which went nowhere. The truth is that virtualization is NOT an easy technology to master, and it is far ahead of the game in this over everybody, including its closest decent competitor XenSource, which was recently acquired by Citrix (CTXS) for 500 million.

Its true that recently chip vendors like Intel and AMD have been adding support in their architecture to make virtualization easier to implement for anybody. But people are still catching up in a market where VMWare has mastered the art.

Back in 2000, I attended a talk by Mendel Rosenblum, the brains behind VMWare, where he described how difficult a time he was having convincing VCs (during the peak dot-com boom) to put money into this technology. Against everyone’s advice, he went ahead and founded this
company anyway. Anyone in computer science could see what a freaking big change this technology was, but VCs didn’t. They must be cursing themselves now.

So my advice - buy this sock while its still affordable and hold on to it.

chris8:

I work in the IT field and use the products on a daily basis. We have one of the largest server and virtual desktop deployments using VMWare. I don’t know where to begin…wow…I have owned this stock from day one and will hold it long term while still trying to acquire more!

Let’s start with the so called competition…XenSource and Microsoft?? LOL..what a joke…I would short XenSource (Citrix) stock…if you want technical details I’ll start a list…Microsoft on the other hand…their product just isn’t anywhere near ESX…they can’t get VMotion (which allows you to move a virtual server from one physical server to another physical without ever interupting the end users experience)…they are on the THIRD iteration of trying to get it to work. They had to drop it out of the product that will be released this upcoming year….VMotion is an IT managers dream….and that’s just one feature of ESX.. I honestly can’t wait to see how tightly Microsoft’s product integrates with their own OS…but even that won’t be enough to overcome the years head start and many patents that it has on them…

VMWare is leaps and bounds ahead of the so called “competition”. If you need any technical details please feel free to ask….I’d like to think I’m pretty well versed with the products.

qiao:

I am in the IT industry. My company and I have worked with VMware for over 10 years. There are no competitive products that comes even close to the features and support you get from it. I think the future prospects of this company is very good. Invested in it because I believe in the talents that the company has. When you are investing in a software firm, all you are investing in are the talents in the company. It’s the 100 lines of magic code that they can write that will keep them out shinning the competitors.

mrmarkml:

In the past 5 years I have noted that both companies that I have worked for use it. I am using it to prototype a server for a migration. They own the market, will continue to do so. A couple others want to get in the game, but it has the big stake in it and will continue to do so. KEEP THIS LONG TERM.. you could easily see 150 by next year at this time. Think about it, patience can and will pay off with VMW.

ericnev:

I am a server administrator and I’ve used VMWare’s Virtual Center with ESX. It is an awesome piece of technology which is at the cutting edge of what technology can do today. I helped make the US Marines and their future IT infrastructure rely on what VMW offers. I believe in VMW enough to put a lot of my college money into their stock.