University of Miami chooses Microsoft over VMware

While I was out on vacation, I missed out on a couple of case studies that were published about Microsoft Virtualization.  One of the great case studies that came out was for the University of Miami.  This is a large university that used VMware and the System Center family of products.  They looked at using Hyper-V and the integration with System Center products like Data Protection Manager, Operations Manager, and Virtual Machine Manager. 

UM went with the Server Management Suite Datacenter (SMSD), which gives them both Virtual and Physical management at a low, per host cost.  I think these quotes sum up the reasons why many companies are going with Microsoft:

“Microsoft virtualization solutions cost us 60 percent less than VMware. They help us save money today while giving us the capabilities needed to operate even more efficiently and cost-effectively as time goes on,”

and

“Most competing products that we owned or evaluated charge per-virtual-machine licensing fees, multiplying the cost advantage that SMSD provides. For instance, the agent cost for the backup solution we used in the past cost us much more than what we’re paying now. SMSD is 65 percent cheaper, and we get the added benefit of all the great System Center products for that price.”