Microsoft pricing for Server 2008 and the Hyper-V virtualization hypervisor was announced on Monday. Probably the two most interesting things about the pricing is that Server 2008 stays pretty close to 2003 pricing (a 1% increase), and pricing for the Hyper-V Server is $28.
At that minimal price, why not just give Microsoft Hyper-V Server away? Most likely so that Microsoft can avoid the certain clamor of monopolistic business practice claims that would surely arise (and please, don’t call me Shirley). But even at $28 bucks a pop, can Microsoft put the brakes on VMware’s momentum?
Hyper-V Server 2008 is certainly an improvement for Microsoft’s virtualization efforts, but won’t dampen VMware’s run of the virutal poker table much in the short term. Microsoft Server 2008 still faces the adoption curve of any major server operating system release. Plus, there’s still quite a bit of shake out yet to be done before Hyper-V becomes as reliable and stable as VMware Server, VMware ESX and Xen. Microsoft still has some courting to do to provide support for other Linux operating systems – only Novell’s SuSE is shown working in Microsoft’s own video demo of Hyper-V Server. The Server Virtualization Validation Program should help with that.
Is it game over, and time for Microsoft to watch VMware take home all the chips? Not quite, but VMware and Citrix/Xen both have one major advantage Hyper-V Server may never have; those hypervisors run on top of lots of different operating environments. Hyper-V Server runs on top of Microsoft Server 2008. Management of Hyper-V Server in the data center is performed using System Center, another Microsoft specific platform product.
VMware and Xen have some distinct advantages, given their multi-operating system nature. Both also have greater potential to virtualize elements of converged security and networking functions, something I’ve talked a great deal about on my personal blog (convergence , virtualization ). Those aren’t capabilities Hyper-V Server is likely to have soon.
That said, there will be lots of Microsoft Server 2008 running in shops over time. Hyper-V Server isn’t a loser by any stretch, it just won’t have the same reach as other virtualization technologies.
