Today marks a significant day in Microsoft's virtualization roadmap - Hyper-V for Windows Server 2008 has been released!
Now, I know that there are a lot of VMWare ESX customers out there, but if you are presented with a virtualization solution that is cheaper, faster (more to come on that soon), and has rock solid stability, then you have to take a look at it, right?
Microsoft has been ‘dogfooding' Hyper-V internally for quite some time, putting our money where our mouth is - MSDN and TechNet are both running on Hyper-V pre-release code and have been for a few months now, and 25% of Microsoft.com is there, as well.
The official press release is here: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2008/jun08/06-26hyperv.mspx
More interesting reading\reviews\commentaries are popping up:
Microsoft Raises Its Game Against VMWare
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200806261152DOWJONESDJONLINE000648_FORTUNE5.htm
KISS VMWARE'S RUMP GOODBYE...
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/147569/kiss_vmwares_rump_goodbye.html
Hyper-V: It's here
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=9194
The links to download the actual software will be live as of 3 p.m.:
This is the complete Hyper-V RTM package for Windows Server 2008 x64. This package must be installed on the Hyper-V Parent Partition. It includes the Hyper-V Server components for Full and Core installations. In addition, is contains the Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V Management components for Full installations. Note This package is permanent. Once installed, it cannot be uninstalled.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=F3AB3D4B-63C8-4424-A738-BADED34D24ED
Hyper-V Management
This is the Windows Vista SP1 x64 Management package. This package provides the management tools for Windows Vista SP1 x64.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=88208468-0AD6-47DE-8580-085CBA42C0C2
This is the Windows Vista SP1 x86 Management package. This package provides the management tools for Windows Vista SP1 x86.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=BF909242-2125-4D06-A968-C8A3D75FF2AA
This is the Windows Server 2008 x86 Management package. This package provides the management tools for Windows Server 2008 x86. Note This package is permanent. Once installed, it cannot be uninstalled.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=6F69D661-5B91-4E5E-A6C0-210E629E1C42