{"id":14518,"date":"2013-04-29T13:19:00","date_gmt":"2013-04-29T12:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/?p=14518"},"modified":"2013-04-29T13:19:00","modified_gmt":"2013-04-29T12:19:00","slug":"hyper-v-versus-vsphere-pricing-comparing-apples-with-apples","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/?p=14518","title":{"rendered":"Hyper-V Versus vSphere \u2013 Comparing Apples With Apples"},"content":{"rendered":"

After reading yet-another-uninformed-pro-vSphere blog post on a tech \u201cnews\u201d site, I just have to say something.\u00a0 Stop.\u00a0 Please stop.\u00a0 Today I read on Tech World that Microsoft does not have anything to compare with DRS.\u00a0 Eh, Dynamic Optimization anybody?<\/p>\n

EDIT: The latest last-gasp from a vFanboy was “Hyper-V does not have bare-metal host deployment”.\u00a0 No it does not; VMM has that feature – and VMM 2012 R2 adds a hell of a lot more.\u00a0 I bet ESXi doesn’t do bare-metal host deployment either, eh children?<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the package comparisons.\u00a0 VMware\u2019s packaging is a nightmare to figure out.\u00a0 What feature is in what version of vSphere?\u00a0 I don\u2019t have a friggin clue.\u00a0 Pricing vSphere makes choosing a phone plan or a health insurance plan look easy.\u00a0 To be safe, the \u201cjournalists\u201d (I reserve real use of that word for a very small subset of the tech news biz) choose Enterprise Plus, the most expensive SKU of vSphere.<\/p>\n

How can we compare Hyper-V versus vSphere?<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
Microsoft SKU<\/td>\nVMware SKU<\/td>\nComments<\/td>\nValid Comparison?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Hyper-V Server 2012<\/td>\nESXi Free<\/td>\nFree versus free, hypervisor only, with no guest OS licensing or host management bundled.<\/td>\nYes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Windows Server Hyper-V<\/td>\nvSphere suites<\/td>\nOn the Microsoft side, you have Hyper-V with guest OS licensing bundled.\u00a0 No central host management (VMM).
\nOn the VMware side you have their hypervisor with no guest OS bundling PLUS central host management solution (vCenter).<\/td>\n		No<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The first comparison compares apples with apples.\u00a0 The second, the one that lazy \u201cjournalists\u201d, like those on TechWorld, choose to use.\u00a0 It\u2019s not a fair comparison.\u00a0 Microsoft and VMware do not bundle their products in similar packages.\u00a0 The missing piece from the Microsoft bundle is System Center \u2013 Virtual Machine Manager.\u00a0 VMM is a central host management solution that does pretty much everything vCenter can do, and more.\u00a0 But you can\u2019t buy VMM on it\u2019s own.\u00a0 Let\u2019s keep searching options \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
Microsoft SKU<\/td>\nVMware SKU<\/td>\nComments<\/td>\nValid Comparison?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Core Infrastructure Suite (CIS) or Enrolment for Core Infrastructure (ECI)<\/td>\nvSphere suites<\/td>\nWindows Server + all<\/span> of System Center with host and<\/span> VM licensing.
\nFrom VMware, we still only have host + host management licensing.<\/td>\n		No<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Core Infrastructure Suite (CIS) or Enrolment for Core Infrastructure (ECI)<\/td>\nVMware vCloud Suite Enterprise<\/td>\nWindows Server + all<\/span> of System Center with host and<\/span> VM licensing.
\nFrom VMware, we now have vSphere Enterprise Plus and a boat load of various management SKUs.<\/td>\n		Close, but no<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Comparing CIS\/ECI to vSphere suites is *giggles* not fair to VMware – who thought I\u2019d ever say that!?!?!?\u00a0 In the Microsoft CIS\/ECI stack you have all of System Center, a complete service delivery, cloud, backup, health monitoring, infrastructure deliver\/management, and so on, for a automating data centre.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know the VMware stack \u2013 as I said, I find it completely confusing compared to the simple Microsoft bundling \u2013 but the vCloud suite seems to have a tonne of stuff in it. You could compare the $11,495 vCloud Suite Enterprise with $5,959.20 ECI bundle. You should remember that the price of Windows Server Datacenter for licensing your VMs in $4,809 per 2 CPU host.\u00a0 That means that to run Windows Server VMs on your vSphere, your cost per 2 CPU host has gone up to $16,304.<\/p>\n

So what about the apples-to-apples comparisons for the top end?\u00a0 Then you need to compare:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
Microsoft SKU<\/td>\nVMware SKU<\/td>\nComments<\/td>\nValid Comparison?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Core Infrastructure Suite (CIS) or Enrolment for Core Infrastructure (ECI)<\/td>\nVMware vCloud Suite Enterprise + Windows Server Datacenter<\/td>\nWindows Server + all<\/span> of System Center with host and<\/span> VM licensing.
\nFrom VMware, we now have vSphere Enterprise Plus and a boat load of various management SKUs, and<\/span> VM licensing.<\/td>\n		Yes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

In summary, Mr\/Miss \u201cjournalist\u201d for future apple-to-apple comparisons you should stick to one of the following:<\/p>\n