On VMworld's Opening Day, a Volley from Microsoft

In years past, Microsoft actually put up a booth at VMware's VMworld trade show. But a series of incidents—including a classic stunt in 2008 that VMware described as "shenanigans", and Microsoft's own entry in the hypervisor-based virtualization market, Hyper-V—has resulted in a decided cooling of relations between the two companies. So this year, Microsoft took a more professional competitive tact.

That's right. It released a hilarious video about VMware on YouTube.

The video features a 1970s vibe, complete with the airbrush-painted van, and a Josh Brolin clone in the main role as Tad. We're talking handlebar mustaches, leather coats, vests, bell bottom pants, and tiger prints. Yes, in the van.

"He's locked in an 8-track world," the video narrator says. "And he's got a one-track mind." The company Tad represents? VMLimited—a clear stand-in for VMware.

And you thought shenanigans were a thing of the past.

Of course, there's a serious point behind the fun. "Some IT providers claim they have a cloud solution, but they really offer something less," Microsoft notes in the text accompanying the video. "They don't offer common management tools that allow you to easily manage and migrate across your private and public clouds. They don't allow you to manage deep within your applications. And they require licensing that charges more, the more you use."

The video links to Microsoft's private cloud website, which now provides a whitepaper detailing the differences between Microsoft's and VMware's private cloud approaches. Which you should read. But in the meantime, do enjoy the video. It's good stuff.