Carl Claunch, an analyst at Gartner Inc., said that VMware's future growth will be with management and configuration software, as well as tools that control functionality -- not the runtime hypervisor.

VMware's approach is to "build this momentum around virtualization -- even if some of it's from Xen and [Microsoft's] Virtual Server -- and get control of configuration and management, the part where the money is in the enterprise," said Claunch.

Among those on the trade show floor yesterday was Jay Haskins, a systems engineer at Holland America Line Inc. in Seattle. The cruise line has a very good reason to consider virtualization: Space for servers onboard a ship is limited.

Holland America line wants to consolidate its servers and is testing VMware, said Haskins. He also stopped by the XenSource booth. Asked about VMware's decision to allow its competitors to display their wares, he grinned and said it was a good thing "because you can at least have other options."