Microsoft Tries to Lure VMware Users With Free Hyper-V Deal
With the impending launch of Microsoft Windows Server 2016 at Microsoft Ignite, being held September 26-30 in Atlanta, Microsoft is out to get VMware vSphere users to switch hypervisors to Hyper-V and get free Windows Server Datacenter licenses with Software Assurance — users will have to pay for the Software Assurance subscription.
The Hyper-V deal, which includes free online training through Microsoft Virtual Academy, began Sept. 1 and ends June 30, 2017.
Microsoft offers five reasons to migrate customers from VMware to Hyper-V:
- Cloud strategy: Support existing and cloud application workloads to solve infrastructure and other issues and deliver a long-term business strategy.
- Security: Protection – even from administrators – with new built-in security capabilities
- Native solutions: Deploy storage and networking capabilities not available with VMware — at no additional charge.
- Converged support: Choose hyperconverged or disaggregated deployments based on your needs.
- Reduced TCO: Lower total cost of ownership compared to VMware
Microsoft was named a leader in Gartner’s x86 server virtualization infrastructure 2016 Magic Quadrant, in August. Hyper-V is the hypervisor that underpins Azure.
Gavriella Schuster, corporate vice president of the worldwide partner group at Microsoft, talked about Windows Server 2016 at the vendor’s Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) in July as one of many new opportunities for partners.
“The move to the cloud is accelerating at a record pace and we are gaining nearly 120,000 new Microsoft Azure subscriptions a month. To help companies further capitalize on this opportunity, today we shared that Windows Server 2016 and System Center 2016 will launch at Microsoft Ignite this fall. This new version of the enterprise operating system customers know and love has been dramatically refactored to help you embrace the cloud-first world, but still retains the familiar – but improved – enterprise features you trust your business on,” she said in a blog.{ad}
Distributor Avant Communications made the following observation about the market.
“We are seeing very strong growth in the cloud IaaS market, especially Hyper-Scalers with some of the fastest growth with Microsoft Azure. In our experience, customers have the best experience when they are supported by a managed provider and don’t get caught “naked” with unmanaged cloud,” said Drew Lydecker, president and founder of Avant.