High on Hyper-V

I went to an instructor-led lab at Microsoft Tech-Ed IT Professionals on Friday, where I was guided through the new capabilities in Windows Server 2008 that will enable Hyper-V virtualization. Since there is typically a difference in the user experience of a person who writes about technology (me) and a person who works with it every day (everyone else in the lab), I stopped a few attendees on the way out. Overall, the feedback was positive. Here are their comments:

“It’s so much better than their previous releases. It’s finally getting there. It’s good to see.”

“We all thought Microsoft was going to put out a cheap but crappy product and blow a lot of smoke about why wee need to switch from VMWare. But it (Hyper-V) actually looks pretty good."

“I like it! It’s perfect for small businesses—it has a dummy-proof wizard that makes it easy to set up and manage VMs. Overall, it’s better than I expected.”

“There are pluses and minuses. Hyper-V comes with a good console. But they say you can’t turn off the drivers, which could be a problem."

“Ack…I don’t know…..I still don’t know.”

-Michelle Savage