VMware to Hyper-V Migrations: Microsoft Trains Partners
Microsoft’s “Switch to Hyper-V” program is seeking to ease VMware to Hyper-V migrations for virtualization customers, partners and cloud services providers (CSPs). Announced at Worldwide Partner Conference 2012 (WPC12), Microsoft has trained about 40 partners on Switch to Hyper-V tools and technologies, according to Mark Miller, director of communications for server and tools marketing. But can Microsoft partners really make a dent in VMware’s virtualization market share? Hmmm…
Let’s start with the basics. Miller says the Switch to Hyper-V program includes:
- Best practices for partners, based on intellectual property that Microsoft has collected — focused, of course, on completed migrations.
- Practice accelerator guidance and related resources.
- A Virtual Machine Migration Toolkit, which allows trained partners to perform end-to-end V2V migrations, Microsoft claims. Components include System Center Orchestrator 2012, Virtual Machine Manager and a partnership with Veeam Software, the top VMware and Hyper-V backup provider.
“We’ve got about 40 partners trained as of WPC,” said Miller. One example: FyrSoft, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, has trimmed migration times from 10 hours down to two hours per virtual machine (VM), Miller said.
No doubt, a lot of partners are looking forward to Windows Server 2012’s launch in October. But can the Switch to Hyper-V campaign really make a dent in the VMware installed base? Hmmm…
Best Guess: Microsoft COO Kevin Turner will likely offer a virtualization market share update during his WPC12 keynote later this week. And VMware will announce Q2 results on July 23. Those results could offer some clues about the VMware vs. Microsoft showdown.
Hyper-V’s installed base is certainly growing. And the Switch to Hyper V campaign sounds promising for loyal Microsoft partners. But The VAR Guy suspects VMware’s market share is doing just fine…
VMware worrying about MSFT market share is like Microsoft worrying about desktop Linux market share. The numbers are out of whack. That being said, VMware does need to get their pricing act together and make it a) cheaper and b) easier to calculate because they are vulnerable there. And let’s face it, Microsoft’s partner program, even for Hyper-V, can run rings around anyone else’s. With Hyper-V included in Win8 and if the V2V actually works (I haven’t tried it), this could be their first real credible assault from MSFT.
VMware is already worrying about hyper-v. Why do you think they just bought dynamic ops? the writing is on the wall. VMware costs too much (vtax BLOWS), they don’t have any more technical advantages and hyper-v3 actually has bunch of things VMware doesn’t have like live migration over just Ethernet, built-in vm replication, network virt, etc. Looks like VMware got slow and lost focus. kindof like this:
Knock, knock
vmware: Who’s there?
Novell. You’re not going to like the rest of this story.
Hi Rob,
How long have you worked at Microsoft?
David: Always good to hear from you. Microsoft COO Kevin Turner claimed this morning that the company is, for the first time, taking share from VMware… We’ll see…
Rob: NetWare made a huge mistake… It never became application centric. And at its height NetWare was selling about 800,000 (approx) server licenses per year. VMware is far more diversified and far more strategic to CIOs and service providers. If Microsoft truly takes market share from VMware, it will be a multi-year journey.
Sunny: Thanks for joining in.
-TVG
Would you trust Microsoft to support your Linux VMs? I guess if you are already paying the MS tax for everything then using Hyper-V would be a great choice for your organization.
Greg: MSFT does have relationships with Red Hat and SUSE… But it would like to see Red Hat truly supported in Azure… …
-TVG
I have not seen any transitions away from VMware in the last 3 years. Every client I’ve worked with, many early adopters included, has moved away from HyperV. While the vram license fee from the introduction of vSphere v5 last summer was a sour pill to swallow, most companies experienced with both products still think VMware is a better solution. The future will be affected by the adoption of VDI. I think the most flexible overall solution provider will win the most market share. I would not count out any of the major players in a market that is still expanding.
VAR Guy: Interesting. Guess you should keep your friends et al. close.
Ted: Sounds like VMware is set to announce quarterly results next week. Once VMware does that, The VAR Guy will report back with some new analysis on how VMware is performing.
Greg: You got that right.
Best,
-TVG
I all comes down to convenience and money. With Microsoft’s new server offering on the horizon; if VMware maintains it’s current pricing model then it will lose ground to Hyper-V.
-Patrick
Patrick: A storage vendor recently told The VAR Guy that VMware can continue to charge a price premium because the company’s management software still outperforms Microsoft’s alternatives. The VAR Guy is watching to see how that thesis plays out…
-TVG