Hyper-V: Hyper Hype or Hyper Important?

As we get closer to Microsoft’s release of Hyper-V the “which will be better” or “who will win” noise is increasing. VMware is the gorilla with significant traction and in market experience. Microsoft has a history of not being first, but slowly taking massive share of markets it decides are important.  And of course Citrix, a company with perhaps the most virtualization pedigree of the group.

We are seeing more and more articles like this one from SearchServerVirtualization.com that addresses future pricing wars. Depending on the expert or pundit you get wildly different views of which technology is better, whether price matters and if it’s possible to disrupt what VMware has already achieved. One thing is for certain, more choice is better for the market and customers.  Competition keeps pricing sharp, drives more aggressive R&D and ensures an eye to quality customer service and support. 

The wildcard is what kind of mark Microsoft will make this fall.  There is no question that their offerings will be less mature and have fewer features than the VMware offerings.  That said they do have some other major advantages, not the least of which is a server OS footprint that is unrivaled.  This “distribution mechanism” is a massive advantage.  Ultimately customers will be weighing a variety of criteria like features, price and performance.   The big question is, how close does Microsoft have to come to start clawing significant share.  They will earn a certain amount of share just because of their OS position in the market, but how much they take and how fast will be determined by the markets acceptance of the feature differential.  If Hyper-V is 60% as featured and capable as VMware?....70%?   Combined with a price advantage and the association with the Windows server OS should allow Microsoft to take share even with a feature deficit.

Comments

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[RamonGustav]

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