New virtualization buddies - XenSource & Symantec
XenSource, Inc. and Symantec have signed an OEM agreement. Symantec is going to work with XenSource to embed Veritas Storage Foundation into XenEnterprise™. The two companies are then going to collaborate on delivering enterprise-class HA/DR and backup technology to XenSource customers. Let's consider why these companies are joining together for this effort.
If we consider Symantec's competitive environment, we would see that the company is facing broad competition from EMC and VMware. EMC's storage virtualization products can be seen as strong competition for Symantec's Veritas product family. EMC has been able to provide its customers a combination of storage virtualization, processing virtualization and management tools for virtualized environments. It is clear that before this agreement, Symantec really couldn't respond if customers were seeking virtualized processing and management tools for a virtualized environment as well as virtualized storage.
XenSource, Inc. and Symantec have signed an OEM agreement. Symantec is going to work with XenSource to embed Veritas Storage Foundation into XenEnterprise™. The two companies are then going to collaborate on delivering enterprise-class HA/DR and backup technology to XenSource customers. Let's consider why these companies are joining together for this effort.
Imaginary conversation in Symantec's boardroom
If we could have been able to ease drop on the executive boardroom over at Symantec, we probably would have heard a conversation something like the following:
Executive 1: We've got to find a way to respond to EMC's offerings or we're going to lose important enterprise customers. How can we provide a complete virtual storage/virtual processing/management offering to our customers to blunt EMC's attack on our customer base?
Executive 2: In general, we can do one of three things to respond.
- Symantec could develop its own virtual processing and virtual management software.
- We could buy someone who offers virtual processing and virtual management software.
- We could find a partner who already has a strong virtual processing/virtual management product offering who already knows how our storage foundation software works.
Executive 1: You're right, of course, but, option one would take too long and option two would be very expensive and we'd have difficulty keeping top virtual processing engineers. What about option 3?
Executive 2: Who do we know who has a strong, well known, virtual processing/virtual management product family?
Executive 1: XenSource and maybe one or two others
Executive 2: Why do you mention them?
Executive 1: XenSource has come up again and again when we've spoken with our customers and several of their engineers used to work at Veritas. They'd already know our code, our interfaces and would be able to quickly help our team provide a unified offering. I can think of at least two others because they've developed their own virtualization and management technology. On the whole, however, the best choice would be XenSource since they have the software we need and the expertise to work with our engineering staff.
Back to what passes for reality
Of course, there is no way of knowing if a conversation, such as this one, ever happened in the hallowed halls of Symantec. What is clear is that a combined XenEnterprise/Veritas Storage Foundation would directly address a combined EMC/VMware product offering.
What is also clear is that the two companies, working together, could bring this combined product to market much quicker than Symantec could all on its own.
Snapshot analysis
Symantec customers and XenSource customers are both likely to be very intrigued by this offering. It would mean that they would each be able to deploy a combined processing/storage/management solution without having to go through a painful learning cycle. This, in the end, is likely to reduce their overall costs by directly attacking the largest area of costs in a computing solution, the staff related-costs of management, administration and operations.
Do you agree with this analysis? Would your organization be interested in a combined XenSource/Veritas solution?