VMware And Microsoft Set Aside Differences, Join For Windows 10 Lovefest At VMworld

Microsoft and VMware often squabble like parents at a Little League baseball game, but now they're finding common ground with the recently released Windows 10 operating system.

At its VMworld conference in San Francisco on Tuesday, VMware unveiled a technology preview of Project A2 (pronounced A-Squared), which handles application delivery and management for Windows PCs and devices. It includes VMware's AirWatch mobile management and App Volumes app delivery technology.

In an interview with CRN, Sanjay Poonen, general manager of end-user computing at VMware, said one benefit of Project A2 is being able to use AirWatch to manage Windows 10 PCs and devices, which lowers costs for customers.

[Related: VMware Says Its Hybrid Cloud Solves Tech Challenges Better Than Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure]

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VMware has also expanded its App Volumes technology, which previously worked only with virtual desktops, to deliver legacy Windows apps to physical PCs. Poonen said this speeds migrations to Windows 10 because customers no longer have to upgrade older apps to run on a new OS.

Jim Alkove, corporate vice president for enterprise and security in Microsoft’s Windows and Devices Group (WDG), joined Poonen during his VMworld keynote to affirm that AirWatch is a key part of the Windows ecosystem for managing devices.

The significance of a Microsoft official's speaking onstage at VMworld wasn't lost on Poonen, who likened it to the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall. "I guess you're [former U.S. President Ronald] Reagan and I'm the Indian version of [Former Soviet Union leader Mikhail] Gorbachev," he quipped.

"This makes sense to me and the solution is a good approach," said Jeff Guenthner, director of solutions architecture at CMI, a Mill Valley, Calif.-based VMware and Microsoft partner. "As with the Apple and Cisco partnership, it's an example of how older technology is partnering with new technology to survive."

Another VMware partner wasn't so sure. "It is extremely confusing. If it’s a reach switch in stance, that’s great for VMware and Microsoft customers. I’ll be waiting to see if it actually is a real partnership," said the partner, who didn't want to be named.

Poonen led VMware's $1.5 billion acquisition of AirWatch last January, which immediately catapulted the Palo Alto-based vendor to the lead in the enterprise mobile management market. Microsoft was also said to have been talking to AirWatch before VMware acquired it, sources told CRN last year.

Microsoft has its own offering in this market -- Enterprise Mobility Suite, a bundle of Windows Intune, a paid version of Azure Active Directory with advanced features and Azure Rights Management Services. Microsoft has also bundled mobile device management technology in Office 365.

It wasn't that long ago that Microsoft was trash talking VMware AirWatch. Brad Anderson, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Enterprise Client & Mobility (ECM) team, bashed AirWatch in a blog post last August.

But now, with VMware and Microsoft having formed a symbiotic relationship in the mobility space, this sort of rhetoric could be coming to an end. Considering the huge bets Microsoft is making with Windows 10, any vendor that can help drive migrations to the new OS has to be considered a friend, according to partners.

While the VMware-Microsoft warming of relations isn't a partnership per se, Poonen described Alkove's appearance at VMworld as "a very, very strong statement that the two companies are collaborating and working together."

PUBLISHED SEPT. 1, 2015