Microsoft Virtual Hard Disk Partners
|
VHD Test Drive Program is designed to ease customers’ pains associated with installing and configuring complex environments for the purpose of evaluating Microsoft and partner products and solutions. With the increasing popularity of Microsoft's virtualization format, Microsoft and its partners are providing customers with an enhanced evaluation experience that’s faster and less expensive, better supported and more flexible.
Microsoft partners can now leverage the VHD Test Drive Program to make pre-configured VHDs available to customers in addition to leveraging the VHD Image Format specifications to build value added solutions to fully leverage the capabilities of a virtualized infrastructure.
VHD Specifications
As a common virtualization file format, the VHD format ensure a uniform product support system, and provides more seamless manageability, security, reliability and cost-efficiency for customers. Microsoft is providing access to the VHD Image Format Specification Document as a part of the Open Specification Promise (OSP). The OSP provides broad use of Microsoft patented technology necessary to implement a list of covered specifications. The goal of the OSP is to provide our customers and partners with additional options for implementing interoperable solutions. Please reference the OSP Website for complete details.
By making the VHD Image format specifications freely available under the Open Specifications Promise, customers and partners can realize the value of standardizing on the common Microsoft VHD format. Find out more details about the VHD Image Format Specifications from here.
VHD Test Drive Program
The Microsoft VHD Test Drive Program provides Microsoft’s partners a convenient and simplified process for creation of application images, facilitates its widespread distribution by making it available as a free download and enables accelerated evaluation and testing of these applications by customers. If you are Microsoft partner and would like to be able to distribute your applications in a VHD, you will have to sign the VHD redistribution agreement. To participate in this program, send an email to vhdinfo@microsoft.com and ask for a copy of the agreement to be signed and returned to Microsoft.