Interop 2008 Update: Network World's John Fontana is reporting we may see Microsoft's Hyper-V ship to customers in June or July 08, busting out ahead of the 180 day timeframe Microsoft originally gave itself. Microsoft needs a successful Hyper-V launch out in the marketplace to begin to stave off VMware's dominance. But Hyper-V can't do it alone, that's only part of the picture. Just having Hyper-V is like having a NASCAR race car but no pit crew. Hyper-V's got to have the management tools to be successfully utilized by IT. Most agree; the hypervisor will be a commodity, it's the management capabilities enabling customers to manage virtualized environments that will win the day. There's probably some true to this theory.
What's needed most to deploy software on Hyper-V at any scale is Microsoft's Virtual Machine Manager 2008 (VMM). VMM just went into beta and is expected to ship 30 to 60 days after Hyper-V's release, making the product launch likely sometime in early fall.
VMM's making some interesting claims about managing virtualization. Not only is VMM 2008 managing Hyper-V, Virtual Server, but also VMware's ESX product. Microsoft isn't claiming VMM is a full replacement for VMware's Virtual Center product, but is claiming a significant portion of what Virtual Center does can be done within VMM. Both products will remain in sync through VMM's integration with VMware's web services. Yet another announcement by Microsoft to support other vendor's software products, something we're seeing a lot more of in the Ozzie era.
But is Hyper-V and Virtual Machine Manager 2008 compelling enough to cause existing VMware customers to buy Microsoft's virtualization products too? I'm not convinced, at least I haven't heard a convincing argument from Microsoft yet. The VMM team's blog post is claiming Microsoft does all this at one third the cost of VMware, but that's an incremental cost if you are already a VMware Virtual Center customer. And we'll have to see if Hyper-V and VMM are competitive against VMware in new accounts where VMware doesn't already have a presence.
VMware hasn't sewn up the market quite yet, but Microsoft's got a tough row to hoe to win the virtualization game. Both Virtual Machine Manager 2008 and Hyper-V have to shine in order to make this happen. Skepticism will abound until we see some big successes by Hyper-V and VMM, and competitive wins against VMware.
Like this? Here are some of Mitchell's recent posts.
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Mitchell's Hottest Blog Posts: Google Scoops Microsoft-Delivers Mesh First
Hyper-V Leaves Linux Out In The Cold, Apple Fixes Open Source Vulnerabilities, What Microsoft Mesh Means To You, Apple iPhone Doomed To Failure.Check out Mitchell's Converging On Microsoft Podcast. Current Podcast Episode: Security Mike Gets Serious About Security
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Mitchell Ashley is CEO and Chief Strategist of Converging Network, LLC, providing product and technology strategies to emerging technology companies. A serial entrepreneur, Mitchell has created many successful products and services in the networking, security, convergence, Internet and IT industries. In addition to blogging for NetworkWorld, Mitchell regularly blogs at TheConvergingNetwork and co-hosts the widely popular Still Crazy After All These Years podcast.
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