What is Hyper-V Replica ?–Next version of Hyper-V Windows Server 8

Hyper-V Replica. Today, replication is complex to configure and often requires expensive proprietary hardware. Hyper-V Replica is asynchronous, application consistent, virtual machine replication built-in to Windows Server 8. With Hyper-V Replica, you can replicate a virtual machine from one location to another with Hyper-V and a network connection. Hyper-V Replica works with any server vendor, any network vendor and any storage vendor. In addition, we will provide unlimited replication in the box.

This last point will be key to our customers. Why? Because VMware announced with VSphere 5.0 that they will include VM replication with their upcoming version of Site Recovery Manager (SRM), which costs extra AND charge customers a per VM replication fee $200-$500 per VM (!) to replicate.