"We are so impressed with Microsoft virtualization technologies that we plan to virtualize everything we can, and phase out VMware."
—Ingersoll Rand
Microsoft Virtualization solutions simply make more sense than VMware. Here’s why:
VMware is six times more expensive than Microsoft - the numbers speak for themselves
Microsoft offers its virtualization and management solutions at lower cost and higher value for customers. Microsoft's server solution costs approximately one-sixth the cost of a comparable solution from VMware*.
Microsoft offers more features for your money than VMware
Microsoft provides many capabilities that VMware does not and cannot offer.
This chart compares VMware Enterprise core features with Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V and System Center Management core features. As you can see, Microsoft is ahead in many of the areas required for a robust desktop to datacenter virtualization and management solution.
For customers who need a hypervisor, the free Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 has all the features you need
You get live migration and clustering for free with Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2. These features are available at no additional charge and provide the following benefits for customers:
Support for live migration for “zero downtime” planned migrations
Support for host clustering for unplanned downtime protection
Lower total cost of ownership compared to VMware ESX 3i
Improved scalability with support for 1 TB host memory and up to 8 sockets
