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VMware's world has just become a little more complicated, after Rackspace announced it now offers “Dedicated VMware vCenter Servers”.

Rackspace's new service will allow VMware users to “migrate existing VMware workloads out of their on-premise data center into a Rackspace data center” in an arrangement that “will look and feel like an extension of the customer’s own data center”.

That's press-release-speak for a hybrid cloud.

But we need to go below that vapid document to consider whether VMware will welcome this new service.

On the one hand, it's a nice endorsement of VMware's products and the fact that its customers are thinking hybrid cloud. Throw in the fact that users will still need licences and you could imagine that VMware will be happy chaps.

On the other hand, VMware is rolling out a hybrid cloud of its own. A competitor might therefore not be entirely welcome, especially as VMware's decision to build its own cloud was widely held to be defensive given the likes of Rackspace and AWS weren't showing an inclination to adopt its products.

The fact remains that VMware has written the cheques to builds its own hybrid and now has a frenemy with proven ability to operate at scale and offer low, low, for cloudy services.

VMware users will smile: they get the best of both worlds thanks to competition between the two companies. We'll ask some at VMworld to see what they think. ®

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