Imitation really is the highest form of flattery. Virtual Iron has recently released their own Virtual Appliance program which they call the “Virtual Appliance Exchange”. This of course is a direct copy of VMware’s Virtual Appliance program, and a direct result of all of the push that VMware has been putting behind the Virtual Appliance concept.

Remember the Virtual Iron blog post titled “First VMware ignores you, then VMware laughs at you, then VMware fights you, then you win”? Maybe that should have been titled “First you copy, then you create FUD, then you copy some more”.

OK, so the idea of a Virtual Appliance is a natural progression to virtualization, but shouldn’t Virtual Iron be creating new concepts? Shouldn’t they be focusing on developing new technologies that VMware hasn’t come up with already? Shouldn’t they be pushing the envelope?

Maybe they are and I’m just not seeing it. Am I wrong?

Virtual Iron - Speak up and tell me I’m wrong!

(Side thought: Shouldn’t VMware have trademarked the term “Virtual Appliance”?)

My buddy Rich at http://www.gotitsolutions.com/ has recently released a Open Source Backup Virtual Appliance. You can read about it on his blog here.

You can download the Appliance here.