(Somewhat) jokingly, I have long said that a certain company famous for virtualization has set a goal of bankrupting all its customers as its victory condition. That company was recently purchased (again), and the new owners promptly set about trying to prove me correct with massive price increases. As part of their campaign to do anything except set reasonable pricing, they have begun telling customers that Hyper-V is dead. At best, they’re wrong. At worst, they’re lying. Hyper-V is not dead. Hyper-V is not dying. Hyper-V is an integral part of Microsoft’s product lineup.
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The Proof of Hyper-V’s Importance
Update: Jeff Woolsey, Principal PM at Microsoft, released a statement on the bright future of Hyper-V.
At Microsoft’s annual Ignite conference in November of 2023, Jeff Woolsey and Elden Christensen led a session on Windows Server (vNext). Presumably, this will appear as Windows Server 2025, but it has yet to receive an official name. The deck for the presentation has more slides for upcoming Hyper-V enhancements than any other category. Some highlights:
- Enhanced GPU support with GPU-P that addresses long-standing problems
- Dynamic processor capabilities for migration in mixed-CPU clusters
- Hot-add and hot-remove of virtual NICs
As more concrete proof, consider Hyper-V’s increasing pervasiveness. It fuels Azure. Security components, even on desktop Windows, rely on Hyper-V technology (for example, Microsoft Defender Application Guard). WSL version 2, Windows Sandbox, and Hyper-V containers all depend on some or all of Hyper-V. With modern Windows, you would have a difficult time avoiding Hyper-V.
The FUD Around Hyper-V
Most of the FUD around Hyper-V consists of the same nonsense that has circulated since its introduction. Basic research can debunk all that. I will leave it to a future article to address them comprehensively. In this one, I want to look at the more recent and immediate misinformation.
The End of Hyper-V Server
Microsoft has a problem with naming things and should seek therapy. “Hyper-V Server” refers not to the Hyper-V technology or its place in the server world. It means a specific SKU that ran a highly trimmed version of Windows Server that did not have an activation mechanism. Yes, that SKU met its end in the 2019 generation. I would absolutely love to revisit that decision and submit my vote to resurrect it. However, Hyper-V as a technology lives on and thrives.
Microsoft’s Silence on Hyper-V
I think the argument goes something like: “If Hyper-V means so much to Microsoft, then why don’t we hear more about it?” First of all, I don’t know why we would expect a company that struggles to name things to have a wonderful connection between marketing and engineering. Like any company, Microsoft markets what sells and Hyper-V itself brings in $0 in revenue because it does not exist alone.
Consider that, in most cases where a customer selects an alternative to Hyper-V, Microsoft makes exactly the same amount of money. An ESXi host running 10 Microsoft Windows Server virtual machines brings the same amount of revenue to Microsoft as a Hyper-V host running 10 Microsoft Windows Server virtual machines. I don’t even think that you could make a case regarding opportunity cost, as saving money on a vSphere license by choosing Hyper-V does not mean that the customer would spend any of it on more Microsoft products.
That said, Microsoft does have a messaging problem with Hyper-V. I can imagine that more than a few people reading this article just now learned how Hyper-V lives at the core of the server and desktop operating systems even when not operating as a full-blown hypervisor. However, the messaging problem does not mean that Hyper-V is preparing to sing its swan song.
Genuine Barriers to Hyper-V Adoption
As a hypervisor, Hyper-V has the capability to operate at scale for high performance workloads. I can say this because I use it for that purpose. I help clients to use it for that purpose.
A valid reason for a customer to hesitate on Hyper-V is the management story. Today, you have PowerShell, the Hyper-V Manager and Failover Cluster Manager MMCs, Windows Admin Center, and System Center Virtual Machine Manager.
- PowerShell: Works wonderfully at scale. Can be a struggle for mundane tasks. Learning curve for new administrators.
- MMCs: No real product evolution in years. Cumbersome to switch between applications for management tasks. Struggle at scale.
- Windows Admin Center: (This is more my opinion than objective fact): Acceptable for managing a host or two, but quickly becomes slow and cumbersome. The focus on making WAC all-encompassing and pretty on gigantic high-resolution screens has cost it dearly in performance and usability.
- System Center Virtual Machine Manager: As the only real competitor to tools such as vCenter, VMM requires more than a bullet point for full treatment. The brief explanation: VMM costs a lot of money, demands a lot of administrative time and effort, and receives shockingly little attention from Microsoft.
I would like to expand on my VMM ideas, but that needs its own article. However, as a competitor to vCenter, it can do the job.
Azure Stack HCI Is Not Just Azure
The majority of companies that can employ a hypervisor will use less expensive options. However, larger institutions interested in hyper-converged infrastructure might initially skip Microsoft’s offering due to the name (yeah there’s that naming problem again). “Azure Stack HCI” could easily handle the name “Microsoft HCI” because “Microsoft” and “HCI” are the only parts that must appear. You can run components of Azure on Azure Stack HCI; the product does not require it.
Azure Stack combines Hyper-V with all of Microsoft’s other cloud-supporting technologies: Storage Spaces Direct, software defined networking, and so on. It does carry a meaningfully high price tag, not least of which comes from the hardware requirements. However, it offers benefits to match and aligns well in its competitive niche.
Use Hyper-V Fearlessly!
Ignore the rumors; Hyper-V lives on and receives much love from Microsoft. It can handle single-host small organizations and continent-spanning private clouds. In the upcoming months, a new Windows Server version will introduce long-requested Hyper-V features and improvements. Expect it to continue to grow and evolve into the future. Next time someone makes the claim, you can confidently tell them that Hyper-V is not dead.