The World According to Mitch

This morning we in the field of Information Technology awake to a new reality… A virtual reality if you will, but one that is quite real.

On July 5th I posted an article in this space called A Response to VMware’s ‘Get the Facts’ page comparing vSphere to Hyper-V and System Center.  In the four weeks since the article was published it has become the fourth most-read article on my blog (I have 437 articles publicly posted, dating back several years… the statistics cited are since the re-launch of The World According to Mitch in November of 2010).  It is certainly the most discussed and commented on.

The first comment, from a manager at VMware, says that we should compare what is in the market TODAY with what’s in the market TODAY, and since vSphere 5.1 was (and remains) in a private beta, we should not discuss Windows Server 2012.

Today Microsoft is releasing to manufactures (RTM) Windows Server 2012, and while they are still the number one virtualization technology in the market with regard to market share, they have a lot to worry about with today’s release.

I have been saying for several years that when Microsoft puts its mind to something (as well as its considerable financial and intellectual resources) you should never bet against them.  In February of 2008 they released Hyper-V, and two years later they released Hyper-V 2008 R2.  The former was decent, but (as VMware enthusiasts were quick to point out) lacked a lot of the features that enterprise IT departments needed.  The second release did a good job of adding many of those features, and with Service Pack 1 came even more features.

I have been a Hyper-V evangelist for a little over two years now, and I have seen the writing on the wall.  Even with Hyper-V 2.1 (2008 R2 SP1) Microsoft offered most of the features and functionality that businesses needed and wanted, but at a fraction of the cost.

Today, with the launch of Hyper-V 3.0, the circle is now complete.  The technological advantages of VMware have evaporated in the momentum of progress that Microsoft has made to Windows Server, Hyper-V, and System Center.

Over the course of the coming weeks and months you will be reading a lot about Hyper-V, both from myself and others.  If you are Canadian you might want to come out to an IT Pro Boot Camp offered by Microsoft Canada.  Even if you are not, I encourage you to download the preview and try it.  Play with it, and when you read about tricks in blog articles try them yourself.  It will not take long for you to realize that it is not just hype surrounding Windows Server 2012, it is substance, it is momentum, and it is a new era of server capabilities, without having to pay a fortune for the privilege.

Welcome to Server 2012 my friends… It is going to be an exciting one!