In my personal opinion, Microsoft has done a poor job of marketing what Hyper-V can do and a poor job of releasing new enhancements. Their new features and releases come slower than VMware (and they started off behind to begin with). The marketing of Hyper-V is summed up with “it’s included with the OS, you can use it if you want”. Virtualization doesn’t seem to be “the new standard” for Microsoft, virtualization is just a feature / role of the OS.
While Hyper-V has great potential for SMB virtualization, it lacks some important features like an easy to use GUI console for Hyper-V free edition, change block tracking, image-based backups with replication, compression and de-duplication (not to mention transparent page sharing and memory ballooning). But what Hyper-V lacks most is excitement, energy, and a groundswell of grassroots support from bloggers and customers. Hyper-V lacks a strong community and Microsoft either hasn’t tried to change that or their efforts haven’t been successful.
Veeam has announced that in their next version of Veeam Backup and Replication (v6) they will support Hyper-V and backup & replication of Hyper-V VMs, change block tracking (CBT), & compression and de-duplication of backup data. 5Nine.com already offers an easy to use, free GUI interface for Hyper-V free edition that runs on the console (or remotely).
Veeam has always struck me as a very energetic company that knows how to create excitement and a following behind their products. Their free tools, whitepapers, and webinars generate interest and provide value. Maybe their signature green color gets people excited too (who knows).
So the question is, do you think that companies like Veeam and 5Nine can significantly change the adoption rate for Hyper-V and do for Hyper-V what Microsoft hasn’t been able to do = create excitement?
I welcome your comments…
(and note that I’m not a Miicrosoft-hater, that I like their products and even have my own Hyper-V server. I don’t mean to offend Microsoft employees and would welcome their comments on Hyper-V and speculation of the future)
Learn more about the new features coming in Veeam Backup and Replication in the video below. And you can download the free 5Nine Hyper-V Manager here.
Note that Veeam is a recent paid sponsor of this blog but that minor sponsorship in no way promoted me to write this post and does not require me to say good things about them. The opinions expressed in this blog post are my own.
David Davis (CCIE #9369, vExpert, VCP, VCAP-DCA) has been in the IT industry for 20+ years. He has authored hundreds of articles, 10+ video training courses, and co-authored one book. Learn about David's certifications, video courses, and where you can find his content on our 
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I had tweeted about something similar.
Google “VMware home labs” & you get a ton of results showing the different ways people are using ESXi etc. Very active “independent” community
Google “Hyper-V home labs”….
I think this move by Veeam definitely puts VMware on notice that they need to be concerned. Over the past few years VMware has slowly lost ground to Microsoft and Citrix in terms of Hypervisor market share. One of the things that’s helped VMware maintain it’s market share has been it’s community and support from exclusive third parties such as Veeam.
The company that I currently work for just moved to Veeam as our primary backup and replication solution. This support for Hyper-V now definitely gives us the ability to transition to a Hyper-V environment if the circumstances dictate that we need to.
Two things that VMware really needs to work on right now is it’s pricing structure for vSphere and their VDI offerings with View and Thinapp. Because they are losing ground right now to Xendesktop and Xenserver.
Nice write up David and thanks for your view on the virtualization landscape.