Mirror on the Wall, Who's the Prettiest Cloud of All?

Against these yardsticks it measured 15 companies. In descending order they are Platform Computing, HP, IBM, VMware, Abiquo, BMC, Dell, CA, TIBCO, newScale, Cloud.com, Eucalyptus, Hexagrid, Microsoft and Enomaly.

Among the purer player vendors - heck against all of them - Platform Computing walks off with first prize ahead of HP, IBM and VMware with a total score of 26 out of a possible 40. HP, IBM and VMware tie for second place with 25, making Abiquo third with 23. newScale is sixth with 19 points followed by Cloud.com, Eucalyptus, Hexagrid and Microsoft all with 18 points apiece. Enomaly comes in last with an accumulation of 12 points.

Platform Computing scored big in RBAC administration and the virtualization layer; VMware in RBAC administration and its image library; Albiquo in its virtualization layer like CA, which tied with TIBCO for fifth place. newScale's portal is strong, stronger than anybody else's except Hexagrid.

Maureen O'Gara the most read innovation reporter for the past 20 years, is the Cloud Computing and Virtualization News Desk editor of SYS-CON Media. She is the publisher of famous "Billygrams" and the editor-in-chief of "Client/Server News" for more than a decade. One of the most respected research reporters in the business, Maureen can be reached by email at maureen(at)sys-con.com or paperboy(at)g2news.com, and by phone at 516 759-7025. Twitter: @MaureenOGara