How Funny: VMware Announces Similar Technology with the Exact Same Name as Competitor

What's in a name? Probably not much if everyone had the same one.

Yesterday at VMworld 2014, VMware announced a unified suite of products to pull together solutions for mobile, desktop and content management. Dubbed VMware Workspace Suite (VMW), the product grouping serves to provide single sign-on, scalable and unified Hybrid Clouds, mobile management through its AirWatch acquisition and other technologies to settle a seamless platform for managing applications, data, and devices.

The full press release is here: VMware Unifies Mobile, Desktop and Content Management with VMware Workspace Suite

VMware's announcement shows the company is serious about wanting to lead the market and its selection of products helps move the market forward. That is until you realize that the new product line is not groundbreaking, because it is very similar to an offering from Citrix – including the actual product name.

Did someone break the first rule of product naming?

Citrix finds it's a bit humorous, too. In a follow-up blog post entitled, Imitation is never as good as the original, Citrix admits to being flattered that VMware would use its already entrenched product name, that it loves the competition, and then goes on to show why VMware's offering is severely behind. Out of 12 primary features for Citrix Workspace Suite, VMware's Workspace Suite will release supporting only 8 of them, with one sitting at a 1.0 and another providing only limited functionality.

So, while the two products do have differences in functionality (with Citrix being more mature), the naming could still get a bit confusing. I grew up with three schoolmates all named David in the same class. We eventually had to revert to nicknames and last names to keep them straight. I guess we could do the same here.

The Citrix blog ends with stating that thousands of customers use Citrix Workspace Suite already, and that "…there's no beating the original."

His name is Robert. Just don't call him Bobby.