Aug 31, 2010 – Microsoft published in the USA TODAY Newspaper an open letter to VMware customers asking them to rethink signing a new three year contract with VMware. In the letter Brad Anderson argues that, “…signing up for a three-year virtualization commitment may lock you into a vendor that cannot provide you with the breadth of technology, flexibility or scale, that you’ll need to build a complete cloud computing environment."

He goes on to say, "If you’re evaluating a new licensing agreement with VMware, talk to us first. You have nothing to lose and plenty to gain. Not only is Microsoft’s server virtualization solution approximately one-third the cost of a comparable solution from VMware, but also a recent Microsoft study of 150 large companies showed those running Microsoft virtualization spent 24 percent less on IT labor on an ongoing basis.”

Below is an image capture of the open letter:

Microsoft_letter_to_VMware 

Read more about it and get Ina Fried’s comments on the open letter on her CNet Blog: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-20015123-56.html?tag=mncol