Xen is pushing harder to make its app a GUI friendly, like the last developments that we saw. Virtual Iron seems to be pushing ahead but is it all what it take to make a "killer app!"? (I'm getting a bit tired of the "killer app"terma lately)
what's lacking? Polish, performance, and the little bits around the edges. The console interaction provided by Virtual Iron 3.1 is fair for Windows guests, but quite sloppy for Linux guests running X11. This is rather surprising, but mouse tracking under Windows is far superior. Of course, most Linux guests won't be running X11, which mitigates this problem somewhat.
Also missing is VM snapshot support, as well as basic backup tools. Coupled with the lack of iSCSI and NFS support, very basic network configurations, questionable I/O (input/output) performance, and the obvious wet-behind-the-ears feel of the package, it may be a bit of a hard sell for production use.
Oh really. Performaance, edges? Not important , right? Well I think the clients are not stupid to go for something cooler when they have a solid product from VMware.
Still, Rome wasn't built in a day, and I believe that the lack of these features is more reflective of "haven't gotten there yet" rather than "won't get there," and it certainly seems that Virtual Iron is well on its way to becoming a true competitor in the virtualization world. If the next release -- slated for first quarter this year -- manages to address these issues, the company may find that market open wide, especially because at US$499 per processor, a full Virtual Iron 3.1 license costs a fraction of a comparable VMware license. In short, if Virtual Iron can keep up this pace, it's definitely a contender.
We aren't ordering Rome, we just want some good software. We;ll see if this product can get any better than the FREE VMware Server! If the benchmarks of this $499 product are no where close to the $0.00 VMware Server then I'm curious who'd be buying this paid software.
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