Available now: The Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter 2.0

Today we are releasing the Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter (MVMC) 2.0, a supported, freely available solution for converting VMware-based virtual machines and virtual disks to Hyper-V-based virtual machines and virtual hard disks (VHDs).

Did you know that Hyper-V has had four times the growth of VMware's ESX over the past three years? In fact, in a global survey of ~2000 VMware customers, ~50% indicated that they are also running Hyper-V¹. As such, virtual machine migration is an increasing priority for many customers as more and more are exploring and evaluating the Microsoft platform against their existing VMware installed base. Whether it's virtual to virtual (from one hypervisor to another) or physical to virtual, migration provides customers a path for consolidation of workloads and services, and the foundation for cloud.

Customers are already making the switch

ABM is one of the largest facility solutions providers in the United States, with more than 350 offices, a hundred thousand employees, and tens of thousands of customers. With the company growing rapidly and globally, the ABM IT staff was challenged to deliver and manage IT services everywhere they were needed, as quickly as they were needed. "Windows Server 2012 R2 represents a tipping point in new technology" said Andre Garcia, Assistant Vice President of Global Infrastructure Services at ABM. "Microsoft is finally on par with or ahead of VMware capabilities." ABM upgraded to Windows Server 2012 R2 and System Center 2012 R2 to gain more automation in managing its VMware virtualization infrastructure and to begin migrating VMware workloads to the Hyper-V technology. Read more about ABM here. ABM is not the only company making the move. With the value offered by Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V and System Center 2012 R2, it's no surprise that we're seeing consistent market share gain vis-à-vis VMware as well as great endorsement via a leadership position in the Gartner Magic Quadrant. In this context, delivering MVMC 2.0, an easy to use, efficient migration solution to enable them to switch from VMware to Hyper-V at a low cost, became increasingly important.

MVMC 2.0

With the release today, you will be able to access many updated features including:

  • Added support for vCenter & ESX(i) 5.5
  • VMware virtual hardware version 4 – 10 support
  • Linux Guest OS migration support including CentOS, Debian, Oracle, Red Hat Enterprise, SuSE enterprise and Ubuntu.

We have also added two great new features:

  • On-Premises VM to Azure VM conversion: You can now migrate your VMware virtual machines straight to Azure. Ease your migration process and take advantage of Microsoft's cloud infrastructure with a simple wizard driven experience.
  • PowerShell interface for scripting and automation support: Automate your migration via workflow tools including System Center Orchestrator and more. Hook MVMC 2.0 into greater processes including candidate identification and migration activities.

At this time, we are also announcing the expected availability of MVMC 3.0 in fall of 2014. In that release we will be providing physical to virtual (P2V) machine conversion for supported versions of Windows.

For more information about the MVMC 2.0 solution including how to download, make sure you visit here

The right tool for the right job

We know that customers have different needs. Some are looking to test, or trial a migration for a proof of concept. Some may have a smaller datacenter they are looking to migrate, while others may have larger requirements. There are multiple solutions available from Microsoft and their partners to assist customers approaching this effort. You can see more partners and aligned scenarios at https://virtualizationsquared.com.

Summary

With Windows Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V and System Center 2012 R2, Microsoft has a solution to enable customers to virtualize their key, mission critical workloads and realize significant savings compared to VMware. Hyper-V enables customers to run their largest workloads. It offers massive host, VM and cluster scalability. It provides powerful storage, networking, and automation features that enterprises and service providers demand. With a number of supported tools, you have many options available to test and continue your migration to Hyper-V.

¹ Source: IDC Worldwide Server Virtualization Tracker 2014Q1, and Official unofficial VMware storage survey, link here.