Hyper-V vs. VMWare

In the world of virtualisation VMWare were one of the first, but not the only, company in this area. Connectix were also there early with their Virtual PC product which ran on the Apple Macintosh to allow Mac users to run Windows software. Microsoft bought Connectix and the rest as they say, is history.

It is fair to say that VMWare are the virtualisation market leaders but they are being pushed hard by Microsoft for one very simple reason; Hyper-V is FREE with Windows Server 2008. Companies are now upgrading to an operating system where they get the virtualisation software for free IN THE PRODUCT!

It is true that VMWare’s basic virtualisation product (VMWare ESXi) is also free, but has to be added on to the server in addition to Windows. And managing VMware server’s without the extra management tools isn’t much fun. This is one area where Microsoft have stolen a march.

So which is better, VMWare ESXi or Microsoft Hyper-V?

Depends on what you want but broadly it splits on whether the virtual machines are going to be Windows or Linux based. Organisations with Linux are slightly better off using VMWare, those with Windows are really better off on Hyper-V. Hyper-V performs better with Windows than VMWare, VMWare understand how to virtualise Linux slightly better, but Microsoft has help from Citrix in this area so are no slouches here either.

Does it ever get painful being sat on the fence like that?

Not really, you get used to it in I.T. But I take your point, you want an answer. So I’m going to come down on the Microsoft side for the following reasons.

• It’s Microsoft. They have made up an AWFUL lot of ground on VMWare in a very short space of time because they can throw resources at the problem if they see it as worthwhile. Make no mistake, MS intend to win this one because if they don’t they will lose control of what Windows runs on, as it will ‘run’ on VMWare rather than directly on the computer, where they are joined at the hip with Intel and the hardware manufacturers.
• Performance is slightly better on Hyper-V compared to VMWare for Windows-based VMs.
• The free tools to manage Hyper-V are now better than the equivalent free tools for VMWare. The extra tools that can be purchased to manage Hyper-V are cheaper than those available for VMWare who seem intent on flogging the customer for all the money they can get.  At least one of our customers is ditching VMWare in favour of Hyper-V DESPITE already spending money with them because they will save in the medium term and money is tight now.

I am also in the process of writing a guide to virtualisation which I will be posting in a few days so keep your eyes peeled or why not subscribe to our RSS feed or follow us on Twitter