The Inevitable Rise of Hyper-V

The Hyper-V tide is rising. Not rapidly, like a tsunami, but steadily, like a flood.

On the vendor side, Veeam just announced their support for the Microsoft hypervisor, and VMTurbo has done the same. Ditto OpenStack and Virsto Software. You can also include Emulex, Quest, Desktone and the OpenNebula open source project. The list goes on with Microsoft business partners Cisco, Dell, and HP. Other companies, such as Unidesk have announced future support, and the numbers will only grow.

On the user side, more and more Microsoft customers are taking advantage of their access to Hyper-V through Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, and Redmond has rewarded them by building in dynamic memory and Remote FX graphics for VDI desktops. Things will only get better when Windows 8 and System Center 2012 debut.

The thing about Hyper-V that customers really love--and VMware no doubt detests--is that it's cheap. Cheap as in inexpensive, not cheap as in it doesn't work. The fact is, Hyper-V users realize going in that they are not getting the capabilities of ESXi, and they don't care, because they know Hyper-V works for their particular environments, and most importantly, the price is right.

Things will only get more interesting as more and more companies become multi-hypervisor shops and ESXi and Hyper-V start competing in close quarters. The thing is, of course, that Hyper-V doesn't have to outperform ESXi in order to prosper and propagate. All it has to do is keep winning the expectation battle and rising with the tide.

Posted by Bruce Hoard on 10/11/2011 at 12:48 PM