VMware's Bush-League Attempts to Stifle Competition

NOTE: Please click here to read an updated post on this topic.

VMware continues to suffer hits to its image by doing dumb things. First it was the YouTube fiasco, in which a VMware marketeer who didn't identify himself showed a no-context video of Microsoft's Hyper-V crashing everywhere. Now, it's appearing to stifle competition at its "industry" show, VMworld.

Brian Madden broke the story about VMware's new contract language for show vendors. Basically, it stated that you weren't allowed in if you competed with a VMware product. Considering that VMware proudly touts its complete, end-to-end virtualization solutions, that would be pretty hard to avoid.

After getting busted, VMware published a completely lame response on its blog. Here's a relevant passage:

As you'd expect, Microsoft and Citrix have already signed up and will of course be participating in the conference this year, as well as hundreds of other companies.

Um, yeah -- except, as the intrepid Madden pointed out, non TAP vendors are limited to a closet.

Come on, VMware -- you're better than this. If your products are so much better than the competition, open up your show to every vendor, including giving them whatever size booth they want to pay for, and prove it. In fact, you could argue that doing so is beneficial for your company -- giving companies space to tout their inferior offerings will only make you look better, right?

I wonder if the some of the arrogance that comes from being the top vendor in a space is starting to infect VMware. The evidence is mounting that that might just be the case.

What's your take? Let me know or comment below.

Posted by Keith Ward on 06/01/2009 at 12:48 PM