An apology from Scott Drummonds
A guest post from VMware's Scott Drummonds:
I made a bad call.
About a month and a half ago, I anonymously posted a YouTube video depicting a controversial test of Microsoft’s Hyper-V. The video was a bit hyperbolic in its dramatization of Hyper-V’s reliability.
Unfortunately, my intention to stir the pot with eye-poking banter has put my credibility and by association VMware’s credibility in question among some of you. For this I apologize.
I’ve removed the video from YouTube. I’ve also sent a note of apology to Jeff Woosley at Microsoft.
My focus, and clearly VMware’s focus, is to help our 140,000 plus customers get the most from their technology investments. This is our commitment. We will absolutely work our best to live up to the high standard you’ve come to expect from us. And when we mess up, we’ll be the first to address the mistake head on.
Scott
Scott is @drummonds1974 on Twitter. His blog is Virtual Performance.
Posted by VMTN on June 10, 2009 | Permalink |
We all make mistakes. Good on you for coming clean.
james.
Posted by: James | June 10, 2009 at 02:19 PM
Well done Scott, it's always good to take the high road.
Posted by: VMDoug | June 10, 2009 at 02:29 PM
Pathetic judgement. Truly.
Posted by: Bob | June 11, 2009 at 10:08 AM
Yes, we all make mistakes and I'm glad you finally owned up to it. But your last statement - "And when we mess up, we’ll be the first to address the mistake head on." does not seem to ring true. It seems like you needed a fair bit of prompting after the guy from Microsoft 'first addressed the mistake' by calling you on it. Are you ever going to truly come clean and publish a full description of your test environment? It seems like Microsoft has been requesting that in order to see if they could find the problem you said you found. That would seem like a step to really "address the mistake head on". If you don't do that, I would continue to question how serious you are about this 'apology'.
Posted by: TimC | June 11, 2009 at 11:10 AM
139,999 customers and falling...
Posted by: Ex customer | June 11, 2009 at 12:30 PM
@TimC: Read full disclosure here: http://communities.vmware.com/blogs/bherndon/2009/06/08/setting-the-record-straight-on-the-hyperv-video
Did the MS dudes come clean after their video-FUD-blog? spreading obvious lies? No? well have ANY MS representative ever come clean after spreading half-truths and lies?? Didn't think so.
At least Scott said something, if he means it is of no consequence to me, but taking the moral high ground is more important in building trust.
Remember Scott never lied, he posted a video with insufficient details - very diabolical indeed.
Scott keep on doing the other things you do so well !
Posted by: Louw Pretorius | June 11, 2009 at 01:44 PM
It is good to come clean on this. The worst thing was posting something that made it impossible for Microsoft to test. If you find a problem with Microsoft (or anyones) software then post a honest data about that problem providing as much detail as possible so they or anyone can test and verify.
And to Lauw, the difference is Microsoft never tries to hide it is them saying something, even when they post something wrong.
Posted by: Jack | June 11, 2009 at 03:14 PM
Based on the discussion at that full disclosure link, I gotta say it's totally warranted to call Hyper-V out on the instability.
I wish the video wasn't removed from Youtube, so I could actually see what people are griping about. IMO just outright "removing the video" at this point may do more harm than good in a certain respect.
The fact of the matter is, apparently the Hyper-V RTM product may be unstable under load, and these observations should be extremely worrisome for anyone considering to use Hyper-V..
Posted by: Jimmy | June 11, 2009 at 06:30 PM
"Well done Scott, it's always good to take the high road."
@VMDoug: Where the heck were you for the last couple months during this fiasco to remind Scott about 'taking the high road' after 5 accusatory exchanges between these two organizations?
Your comment is hollow. I suppose you also congratulate defendants 'on their forthright nature' that plead guilty in court.
Posted by: Kel | June 12, 2009 at 01:17 AM
In the future I hope Mr Drummond takes Different Strokes to help drive their software. Although I doubt he will. I am sure they were patting him on the back about that video until they got busted. He has shown vmwares fear and willingness to lie about the competition. Microsoft isnt the only company vmware has been lying about.... lets see if they continue their unethical smear campaigns.
Posted by: TB3 | June 12, 2009 at 08:54 AM
@TB3: Please enlighten us about the so-called "lies" that vmware has perported to have told? Smear-campaign? If the truth sucks its not smearing it's informative.
Mr Drummond has been proven right not wrong on a technical level and they have shown all of us how weak and unstable Hyper-V is at load.
This you can do yourself, no need for engineers to break it, it does that all on its own.
Posted by: Louw Pretorius | June 12, 2009 at 01:35 PM
Microsoft would never be humble enough to apologize from the explicitly lies and FUD they are adding to their blogs.
A good example is the one claiming VMware is an extra layer, and the ridiculous FUD of the 10 myths video.
Scott did not lied, it is good to mention again, Hyper-V really crashed on the tests, and the full details were published.
The wrongdoing here was to publish the video anonymously, and without details.
Posted by: Fernando | June 13, 2009 at 01:59 PM
I'm glad that after 3 months of silence after being exposed...VMWare finally posted their "methodology" on June 8th, 2009.
Too bad their "methodology" was completely bogus. There was a fix available for the issue from MS Hyper-V for over a year...a fix even VMware had to develop for their products.
I hope in your commitment to being "first"...it would begin to include a new word...Honest.
Microsoft has responded to this post bringing this issue to a close:
http://blogs.technet.com/virtualization/archive/2009/06/12/vmware-fud-fiasco-final.aspx
Posted by: JohnG | June 14, 2009 at 11:47 AM
"I'm glad that after 3 months of silence"
I apologize, I meant to say:
"I'm glad that after 1.5 months of silence"
Posted by: JohnG | June 14, 2009 at 11:54 AM
It is clearly obvious that those people who are saying here that either Scott was right and Hyper-V is unstable, or that full disclosure was given in the video CLEARLY HAVEN'T SEEN THE VIDEO.
So, to all you VMWare-tossers, get yourt facts right before making baseless comments about something you haven't seen and/or have no idea about.
Scott Drummonds lost all credibility with this fiasco. Microsoft defended their product and in the end even VMWare had to admit that they cocked up and were lying.
Posted by: Yeah | June 15, 2009 at 12:22 AM
Darn, I came too late to catch the video, but I still get the chance to see the end result, or lets say the final response. Based on Mr. Scott’s statement, my guess is that he did something wrong, or, for reasons that I cannot imagine nor state, he was forced to do so. Either way, the game wasn’t played fairly and it backfired. It looks like the video in question, was a clumsy response to Microsoft’s video “Top 10 VMware Myths” http://www.microsoft.com/video/en/us/details/f8c3314f-c82d-4f8d-8b19-6a59733670f8
I’m not a fan of either solutions, in terms off that I won’t go for or against a solution based on my love on the company’s background, just like I would for my soccer team. People have the tendency to react in technology solutions as they would in their voting for a political party: “I have no reason to believe that they will do things right, I know that I voted for them last time and still things got even worse, but still all my family votes for them… and my grandfather did, and I like their logo, and I’m used in voting for them” and so on and so forth.
Posted by: IoannisT | June 15, 2009 at 02:45 AM
Democracy isn’t about loyalty, it’s about being the judge of things that may or may not affect you directly (although in the end it will affect you, as it will affect the whole of a country), and making the appropriate decisions.
The same applies to competition between companies, especially the ones focused around technology solutions. “ I know its worse that SuperSoft, but I just love AmazingWare”. Or even worse “I know that AmazingWare is great, but I just know how to use SuperSoft and know nothing about AmazingWare”.
Nowadays, we all have been given the tools to be able to identify the pros and cons of every solution. It’s our obligation to the customer to provide the best possible solution. We have to make our choices based on that fact, and not just because we are used to something, or we are loyal to something else.
Posted by: IoannisT | June 15, 2009 at 02:51 AM
Democracy isn’t about loyalty, it’s about being the judge of things that may or may not affect you directly (although in the end it will affect you, as it will affect the whole of a country), and making the appropriate decisions.
The same applies to competition between companies, especially the ones focused around technology solutions. “ I know its worse that SuperSoft, but I just love AmazingWare”. Or even worse “I know that AmazingWare is great, but I just know how to use SuperSoft and know nothing about AmazingWare”.
Nowadays, we all have been given the tools to be able to identify the pros and cons of every solution. It’s our obligation to the customer to provide the best possible solution. We have to make our choices based on that fact, and not just because we are used to something, or we are loyal to something else.
Posted by: IoannisT | June 15, 2009 at 02:57 AM
nice posting thank for sharing
Posted by: sulumits retsambew | June 15, 2009 at 09:09 AM
will you fight or will you run...
Posted by: Duncan | June 15, 2009 at 01:42 PM
I've watched the video. I've read the blogs posts.
I fail to see the dishonesty.
This is not a moral issue people! Yes, it could have been presented better with more technical details (which was done later), but "taking the high road" and "coming clean"? Really?
Give me a break!
Posted by: Virtual_JTW | June 19, 2009 at 10:17 AM
I am completely disagree with the fact that Microsoft provide a genuine solution for your problem. This is my experience i send a mail about genuine windows xp problem and believe me I am not receive any mail from Microsoft about solution.
Posted by: game | October 06, 2009 at 02:03 AM