Microsoft’s ‘embarrassing’ Hyper-V vs. VMware video

Microsoft has taken its virtualization marketing push and kicked it up a notch — BAM! — but it may be doing more harm than good.

The company’s new “Microsoft Mythbusters: Top 10 VMware Myths” video aims to dispel VMware’s claims about how good its own products are and how much Hyper-V stinks up the joint. Some viewers see it differently, however. They say Microsoft is in no position to talk and that smugness-tinged videos like this one are “embarrassing.”

The video features David Greschler, director of Microsoft’s virtualization strategy, and Edwin Yuen, a technical product manager. Their take on VMware’s first “myth” — that Hyper-V doesn’t offer live migration — pretty much sums up the whole video. Yuen explains that Hyper-V will have live migration in Windows Server 2008 R2, which will be out “soon.” Then Greschler claps his hands together and says “Myth 1: Gone!” while Yuen laughs.

As commenter “guy” writes on Microsoft’s site:

So you are busting the myths of not having a VMotion/VMFS equivalent by stating your next product will have them.  When is that expected out again…2010?

The whole tone of the video seems like something a market-leading company would do in response to an annoying, overmatched new challenger. Except in this case, Microsoft is that challenger, and the folks in Redmond don’t seem to get that they need to win people over with actual products and features — not smarmy videos or guerrilla marketing campaigns.

This attitude may be starting to hurt Microsoft. Commenter “CJ,” who describes himself as a longtime Microsoft Gold partner, writes:

I find the [video] embarassing. Come on guys, if you are going to release something like this, at least wait until you have a real released solution. You’re 10 years too late and hundreds of features short.  I’ll start to consider taking this Virtualization Strategy team serious in 3 to 5 years if they can release a solution that can stand on its own without this kind of comic routine.