VMware is by far the market leader for server virtualization, with competitors Microsoft and Citrix far behind. But when one expands the market to include application virtualization, the race gets much closer for two reasons: VMware has little application virtualization business, while Microsoft and especially Citrix do.
As a result, VMware scores the highest in terms of overall solution provider affinity in the SMB market while its competitors are closing more virtualization deals, according to a survey by the Institute for Partner Education & Development (IPED).
The Channel Affinity Index rankings could change in the future as the three jockey for position, with VMware looking more at the application virtualization side and Microsoft and Citrix looking to gain on the server virtualization side.
The following slides illustrate some results in the server/application virtualization category. ChannelWeb is providing further findings in other product categories throughout December.
