VMware Inc.’s stranglehold on the virtual server business will likely limit Oracle Corp.’s new virtual machine technology to its current customer base. That was the conclusion of some attendees at the Oracle OpenWorld user conference here, where Oracle VM was unveiled earlier this month.

“The idea [that] people will gravitate to Oracle VM for virtualization for non-Oracle applications [is interesting, but] I don’t think they will,” said Galen Shreck, an analyst at Forrester Research Inc.

Shreck predicted that non-Oracle sites will continue to turn to established virtualization technology from companies such as VMware, Microsoft Corp. or Citrix Systems Inc.

Oracle, he said, lacks the systems management capabilities and independent software vendor partner relationships needed to create a virtualization platform for the masses. “I don’t think Oracle can keep up” with the virtualization capabilities of market leader VMware, or even Microsoft and Citrix, Shreck added.

Oracle’s decision not to support its own software running on the virtualization servers of other vendors may give it an advantage in its installed base, users noted.

That decision already has officials at Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse Co. looking to use Oracle VM when the retailer begins work on virtualizing its Oracle database and middleware, said Chief Technology Officer Michael Prince. Considering the Burlington, N.J.-based company’s significant Oracle investment, any loss of support “would be a detriment to us running VMware,” Prince said.

He noted that Burlington Coat Factory is also evaluating whether to replace its SUSE Linux software with Oracle’s Unbreakable Linux implementation, which would give the company another reason to use Oracle VM.

Oracle VM is built on Xen hypervisor open-source code and is designed to support and centrally manage Oracle and non-Oracle applications within virtualized environments, company President Charles Phillips said at the conference.

Oracle said that several partners, including Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Intel Corp., Dell Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co. and Network Appliance Inc., have agreed to ensure that their products are certified to run on Oracle VM.

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