HP, Others Pledge Support For Microsoft's Hyper-V Platform

Windows virtualization storage server

Microsoft officially released Hyper-V to the market on Monday, beginning the vendor's push into a market that until now has been pretty much left to VMware.

HP on Monday introduced a number of new services aimed to help its customers move into the server virtualization market using Hyper-V technology, said Jeff Carlat, director of marketing for HP's Insight software line.

The new lineup, which includes new customized training, infrastructure, and virtual desktop services, result from a two-year collaboration with Microsoft, and complement HP's new line of thin clients and blade servers introduced last week, Carlat said.

HP is supporting Hyper-V on its HP ProLiant server line, which Carlat said was Microsoft's development platform for testing and developing the server virtualization technology.

HP also supports VMware server virtualization technology, Carlat said. "There are uniquenesses to [VMware's] technology," he said. "We are still working to enable the who virtualization ecosystem to work with our hardware, software, and services."

HP is offering consulting in collaboration with Citrix on implementing Citrix XenDesktop desktop PC virtualization technology in Hyper-V environments, Carlat said.

"We have services to help customers migrate to XenDesktop on Hyper-V," he said. "We are also collaborating with Microsoft on its desktop virtualization technology as well. But Citrix is better known in this market."

HP is also providing tools and white papers specific to the use of HP hardware and software with Hyper-V, and has integrated Hyper-V training into its Microsoft System Center training, Carlat said.

"We want our resellers to have the ability to bring their customers into virtualization with HP products," he said.

HP's Insight Dynamics VSE server management software is integrated with Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 to provide a comprehensive management environment for both physical and virtual servers, Carlat said.

HP is also now offering tools such as HP IT Service Management software to discover and manage software licenses in virtual environments, HP Business Service Management software to help monitor physical and virtual servers to identify potential performance issues before they impact users, and HP Business Service Automation software to automate change and configuration management processes across virtual and physical environments, he said.

Other IT vendors also said they are working to support virtual environments built on Hyper-V.

CA, for instance, on Monday said it is supporting Hyper-V across its recovery management, virtualization management, security, and systems management products.

For instance, CA's ARCserve Backup software, now supports virtual servers for file system, SQL Server, and Exchange Server servers using Hyper-V for automated data protection and rapid recovery management.

The company also plans to support Hyper-V management under its CA Advanced Systems Management software that works in both physical and virtual environments. It also plans to support security in Hyper-V environments with CA Access Control, server availability and support management with CA Network and Systems Management software, and replication and failover of guest operating systems under Hyper-V with its CA XOsoft Replication and High Availability software.

NetApp said it is supporting Hyper-V throughout its storage appliance line with its built-in data deduplication and thin provisioning capabilities, and that its SnapManager 5.0 for Microsoft Exchange has recently received Certified for Windows Server 2008 validation with the Hyper-V designation to do backup, recovery, and verification of Microsoft Exchange Server running as a virtual machine on Hyper-V.

Storage infrastructure vendor Emulex on Monday said its Fibre Channel HBAs including its latest 8-Gbits-per-second models, as well as Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) CNAs, also support Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V and Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008.

Neverfail, the Austin, Texas-based developer of continuous availability and disaster recovery software, said on Monday it is extending its Continuous Availability 5.4 product suite to support both critical virtualized and non-virtualized applications. The company also unveiled Neverfail for System Center Virtual Machine Manager to provide high availability and disaster protection for the SQL and library server components of Microsoft's System Center Virtual Machine Manager infrastructure. The company later this year is also expected to deliver a plug-in for its application management framework to manage availability of the System Center Virtual Machine Manager server itself.