That’s right, VMware has finally settled on a new name for would have been called VMware Infrastructure 4. The new name? VMware vSphere.
Word is already out via several other bloggers, such as Jason Boche, Rich Brambley, and Rick Scherer.
This is just the next step in a series of product renames: Virtual Desktop Manager becomes VMware View, VirtualCenter becomes vCenter Server, etc.
Personally, I very much wished they had selected one of the other names they were tossing around. I liked “VMware Vantage.” vSphere? Who came up with this name, and what in the world is this supposed to mean? To me, it creates connotations of running around in a circle getting nowhere. Not exactly the image we want to create, is it?
Anyway, that’s why VMware doesn’t pay me to think. In fact, they don’t pay me at all! Time will tell whether this was a brilliant marketing move or the beginning of the end. Feel free to tell me what you think in the comments.
UPDATE: I’m writing a book on vSphere! Check out the details here.
Tags: Virtualization, VMware, vSphere
-
“To me, it creates connotations of running around in a circle getting nowhere.”
ROFL
The competition could have a field day with that line, just think a bunch of t-shirts with the vSphere logo on the front and that quote underneath… OMG
Thanks for the good laugh at the end of a long week.
-
I like it, or like most new names can get used to it.
Think of it as the “sphere” of your datacenter, with all your resources living in/on it. Sphere/pool/cloud are all dynamic containers of various sorts that can grow. Sphere has more connotations of where we’re heading than the more static platform/framework. It’s a whole new world!
-
I get the reasons behind the rename–a desire to protect one’s product, to keep it from getting turned into a generic name for a class of products, like escalator (once a brand name) or kleenex (still a brand name). But like I said on Twitter, you don’t see Kleenex (the brand name) going out of business selling kleenex tissues (the generic product). Seems to me that there’s still value in creating “virtual infrastructure”, even if that name is becoming a product class instead of a brand name.
In the end, product names and logos are as much a matter of personal preference as anything else. Don’t take it personally–I think NetApp’s new logo really stinks, too.
-
From the VMware’s marketing group: http://tinyurl.com/9esu87
-
LOL, Kevin, that’s pretty good!
-
I don’t really like it. Even vCloud, corny as it is, is still better than that! Oh well, I will still love the product no matter what they call it.
-
Yeah, I think that Vmware is really over-reacting to this new competition in the marketplace (specifically, Microsoft). It really begs the question, why not just let your product sell on it’s merits than bother trying to compete in a marketing campaign against someone who can out advertise you anyway?
We have entered the Virtualisation Wars!!
“Vmware, I … am your major shareholder!!” -
While I have long wished that vendors (and their products) would stand or fall based strictly on their technical merit, the reality of the situation is that the best technology doesn’t always win. Remember OS/2? Technically speaking, it was light-years ahead of Windows 95. I guess I don’t need to remind anyone which of those two won.
While technically VMware has superiority right now and for the foreseeable future, they have to make sure they don’t become the OS/2 of this decade. Unfortunately, that means taking some steps like this to differentiate themselves from other virtualization vendors.
I just wish they had picked something other than vSphere. Oh well…
-
that’s no moon…it’s a vSphere
-
Soon, we will be needing a virtualization dictionary, much like the Telecom Dictionary full of acronyms and product names.
-
I give it a meh at best. I get doing a rename, but there had to be catchier options. I’ve never really been all that into the words that have some lower case letter as the start then te word. I guess Apple started that with iEverything.
The best tech doesn’t always win, BETA vs VHS. Also, sometimes the original better tech becomes complacent and the new guy leaps ahead of them. Microsoft has a history of coming into the game with a product that is a little behind to start with, but builds it up into a polished and integrated unit. I’m sure VMware is going to focus some marketing effort to ensure they don’t become the next Novell.
-
I understand the marketing part to redefine the products and will get used to the name. I just wish they would have waited until ESX4 was released and define what it will be at that time.
Now I am just going to ramble for a second and say that it almost feels to me that VMware is not making their target release date for ESX4, oops I mean vSphere, and VMware is working the marketing angle to keep people talking about the up and coming.
-
Hmmm…VMware stooping to a Microsoft tactic to cover up a delay in the release date? Those are strong words, Steve!
It’s an interesting thought, and with all the ambitious features that are slated to be included in ESX4/VI4/vSphere, you may just be right. Time will tell, that’s for sure.
-
It’s the age-old question of how to name a product… evocatively or descriptively? I believe that for a highly technical user base, descriptive wins every time while shiny names like vSphere, while pretty, are laughed out of the room. I think people who use VMware want a name that tells what it does, or at least to evoke something tangible.
-
vSphere – wasn’t that the orb that got passed around at that party in Woody Allen’s “Sleeper”? The future is now!
-
vSphere dat dis product contains no beta license timout.
couldn’t help it.
-
Help! I’m stuck inside the vSphere:
http://tinyurl.com/crtwe2 -
Maybe I need to get used to it, but parting from “virtual infrastructure” might be a mistake, an advantage for those competitors that are trying to close the gap with VMware and have been struggling to do so also for the natural association virtual=VMWare.
-
I like vSphere. To me, it has connotations of a potentially global product scope…
-
If VMwares’ products cover all over this planet, and since earth is a sphere, the name vSphere does make some sense…
-
I can’t care if they call it The Great Space Coaster as long as it’s a solid product. But I do think the name changes are confusing people.
-
The name is silly, but if they keep it, all will be well. One thing I have hated (and still hate) about HP OpenView as a product suite is how they keep changing the names of all their products, even though the products don’t change very much at all. And the names they pick are non-descriptive, too, so not only do you not know what it is called, you don’t even know for sure what it is. There are other vendors out there that suffer from this too, not just HP, they just come easily to mind.
I don’t like vSphere, but I think it is ok. Dumb but ok – as long as they don’t change it to something else when VI5 comes out!
-
C´mon guys, don´t you think youre overeacting just a little bit?
It´s a name as good as any.What about Pepsi? Is that a good name for a product, or just an alien-name?
Leave it be, obey me!
-
Lady Data,
You are correct, in a sense. It’s no different than any number of “made up names” for other products, like Pepsi. I guess we were all hoping that VMware wouldn’t resort to coming up with a “made up name” for their product.
-
vSphere sounds like an over-reaction to Microsoft marketing in advance, end result being a let down.
I like VI, but a catchier name would have helped (Vantage sounds better); vSphere sounds like a lame attempt to be cooler than MS.
Site Sponsors
25 comments
Comments feed for this article
Trackback link: http://blog.scottlowe.org/2008/12/19/get-used-to-vsphere/trackback/