Hypervisors like Microsoft technologies Hyper-V server and VMWare vSphere products are popular for creating your own private and public cloud environments. You can even launch dedicated Hyper-V and VMware clusters directly on some cloud providers – avoiding the need to purchase your own virtualization solutions hardware.

VMware ESXi and Hyper-V are Type-1 hypervisors, meaning that the virtualization software is installed directly onto bare-metal hardware and does not require a host operating system. Your virtual machine resides on top of the hypervisor layer, and you can run multiple virtual machines on any operating system inside a VM.

In this article, we explore Hyper-V vs VMWare as virtual machine management tools. We will discover the strengths of each type of hypervisor, then do a comparison between Hyper-V vs VMware to give you the information to decide which advanced virtual machine features work best for your business.

What Is Hyper-V?

Hyper-V is a native virtualization platform that’s deeply integrated into the Windows Server operating system. It was first introduced in Windows Server 2008 R2 as a downloadable Windows Update, but since Windows Server 2012, Hyper-V has been a built-in core component of the operating system.

But it’s not limited to Windows Server; you can also enable Hyper-V in client versions of Windows such as Windows 10 or Windows 11 operating systems. It’s important to note that these versions are classified as Type-2 hypervisors because they rely on the host operating system to function. The Type-1 Windows Server version runs independently and has access to the hardware layer to manage virtual disks and virtual networking directly.

Hyper-V allows the user to create and manage virtual machines (VMs) from a dedicated Windows host. It’s possible to run multiple operating systems in Hyper-V, including Windows, Linux, and FreeBSD, simultaneously on the same physical server. With seamless integration into the Windows Server and OS ecosystem, Hyper-V offers a familiar management experience for Windows administrators.

Hyper-V: How It Works

Hyper-V uses hardware-assisted virtualization technologies (like Intel VT-x or AMD-V) to create virtualized hardware environments for each VM, allowing VMs to run directly on the physical CPU, and providing near-native performance with dynamic resource allocation.

The hypervisor manages and allocates the physical resources (CPU, memory, storage, network) to the VMs based on pre-configured settings and current demands, ensuring efficient utilization of resources and allowing multiple VMs to run simultaneously on the same virtualization technology.

Each virtual machine runs in its own isolated space, preventing interference from other VMs or the host system. Hyper-V Manager or other management tools (like System Center Virtual Machine Manager or Windows Admin Center) allow administrators to create, configure, start, stop, manage, and run virtual machines, as well as perform tasks like live migration and replication.

What are the benefits of Windows Server Hyper-V?

Microsoft Hyper-V is a popular way to introduce virtualization technology to Windows-centric environments and organizations without investing huge amounts of capital to get started.

  • Cost-effectiveness: Hyper-V is included with Windows Server licenses, making it an attractive option for organizations already invested in Microsoft technologies.
  • Ease of use: Hyper-V Manager offers a straightforward graphical user interface (GUI) for creating, configuring, and managing virtual machines, simplifying the virtualization process for Windows administrators.
  • Integration with Windows ecosystem: Hyper-V seamlessly integrates with other Microsoft technologies like System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) and Windows Admin Center, providing centralized management for your entire virtualized environment.  If you know how to use Windows Server, you will pick up Hyper-V very quickly.
  • Dynamic memory: Hyper-V’s dynamic memory feature allows VMs to allocate memory dynamically based on their needs, optimizing resource utilization on the host server.  This is a great way to get high-performing virtual machines, but remember that resources are not infinite.
  • Live migration: Hyper-V enables you to move running virtual machines between physical host server(s) without downtime, ensuring high availability for your critical applications.
  • Security features: Hyper-V offers several security features, including Shielded VMs, Secure Boot, and Virtual Trusted Platform Module (vTPM), to protect your VMs from unauthorized access and malware

What Is VMware?

VMware is a leading provider of virtualization and cloud computing software and services. It’s a company that offers a comprehensive suite of solutions that enable organizations to virtualize their IT infrastructure, from servers and storage to networking and desktops.

VMware’s flagship product, vSphere, is a server virtualization platform that allows you to create and manage multiple virtual machines (VMs) on a single physical server, running different operating systems and applications simultaneously.

VMware has been around for decades, starting life back in 1998. VMware workstation was released in 1999, and VMware ESXi server virtualization platform was released in 2001. Its been hugely popular, but it can be argued that its popularity has dropped significantly since the mass adoption of cloud based services. However, there is definitely still a big market for VMware virtualization solutions and products.

Key VMware Products

VMware has lots of virtualization products. But when people talk about VMware, they are typically referring to vSphere.

However, its important to know that the big 5 VMware products are:

  • vSphere: VMware’s flagship server virtualization platform.
  • vSAN: Software-defined storage solution that pools storage resources from multiple servers.
  • NSX: Network virtualization platform that enables you to create and manage virtual networks.
  • Horizon: Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) solution that delivers virtual desktops and applications to users. (Similar to Citrix)
  • Workspace ONE: Unified endpoint management (UEM) platform that enables you to manage and secure mobile devices, desktops, and applications.

VMware vSphere: How it Works

At its core, vSphere enables you to create and manage multiple virtual machines (VMs) on a single physical server, each running its own operating system and applications independently.

Resource allocation is dynamically managed by VMware ESXi, ensuring optimal utilization. The physical server’s CPU, memory, storage, and network capabilities are distributed amongst the VMs according to their configured settings and real-time demands.

vCenter Server is used as a control center for the entire vSphere environment. From this central hub, administrators can create, configure, and deploy VMs, along with monitoring their resource consumption and overall performance. Install VMWare tools on the VMware VMs to get better performance and interaction with the virtual machine.

There are several key components of VMWare to understand:

  • VMware ESXi Hypervisor: VMware ESXi is installed directly on the host hardware and is used to directly manage your host hardware resources. VMware ESXi is a type-1 (bare-metal) hypervisor that installs directly onto the physical server’s hardware. It has complete control over the server’s resources (CPU, memory, storage, network) and creates a virtualized environment for each VM.
  • Virtual Machines (VMs): These are software-based representations of physical computers created by vSphere. Each VM has its own virtual hardware (vCPU, vRAM, vNIC, etc.) and runs its own guest operating system and applications.
  • vCenter Server: A centralized management platform that provides a single pane of glass for managing multiple VMware ESXi hosts and their VMs. It offers features like VM provisioning and deployment, resource allocation and monitoring, high availability and disaster recovery, configuration, and policy management.

What are the benefits of VMware ESXi Hypervisors?

VMware has lots of benefits, especially when combined with VMware Vcenter server. You get an entire virtualized data center in your control to manage virtual machines to your hearts content.

Here are some of the key benefits of VMware:

  • Performance and scalability: VMware is known for its class-leading performance and scalability, making it suitable for demanding workloads and large-scale deployments. Technology such as NSX and vSAN enable flexible storage and networking upgrade.
  • Advanced management features: VMware vSphere includes vCenter Server, a centralized management platform for managing multiple VMware ESXi hosts, VMs, and other resources in your virtualized environment.  VMware memory management techniques cleverly manage resources throughout your virtual data center.
  • High availability and fault tolerance: VMware offers various features, like vMotion and vSphere HA, to ensure high availability and fault tolerance for your critical VMs.
  • vSphere Distributed Resource Scheduler (DRS): DRS dynamically balances workloads across multiple VMware ESXi hosts, optimizing resource utilization and ensuring consistent performance.
  • Extensive hardware compatibility: VMware supports a broad range of server hardware, offering flexibility in choosing your infrastructure.
  • Third-party Support: VMware boasts a vast ecosystem of third-party tools and solutions that integrate seamlessly with its virtualization platform. You can integrate VMware directly into cloud solutions, backup solutions, and third party management tools with ease.

Comparing VMware and Microsoft Hyper-V Virtual Machines

Both VMware and Hyper-V are mature products that have decades of development built into the products. Broadly speaking they offer similar services, but there are some big differences between the two solutions.

Both VMware and Hyper-V are powerful virtualization platforms with unique strengths. VMware excels in performance, scalability, and advanced management features, while Hyper-V offers cost-effectiveness, ease of use, and seamless integration with the Windows ecosystem.

Your ideal choice will depend on your specific requirements, budget, and technical expertise.

Cost Considerations

Cost is one area that is a major differentiator. Both virtualization platforms require expensive hardware with multiple CPUs, stacks of memory, and redundant networking and storage. If you want high availability (HA) you need to purchase multiple virtualization hosts, if you want disaster recovery capabilities you need to replicate the setup in a secondary location, ensuring storage and network layer replication. These types of requirements alone are an extremely expensive pre-requisite for enterprise-grade virtualization.

On the other hand, Hyper-V is included with Windows Server licenses, making it a cost-effective option for organizations already invested in Microsoft. So for example, if you have 16 cores across 2 CPUs, Windows Server Standard Edition will cost around $1069 and allow you to run two virtual machines (VMs) on top of it. Windows Server Datacenter Edition will cost around $6155 and allows you to run an unlimited number of VMs.

VMware, on the other hand, has a higher upfront costs, with licensing typically based on the number of CPUs in your environment. Their pricing model is also much more complicated and seems to change every few months. vSphere is priced per CPU (not per core), and there are limits about how many cores you can have per CPU, it’s all very confusing. Therefore, you’re looking at roughly VMware vSphere Enterprise for $3,540 per CPU, and VMware vSphere Enterprise Plus at around $4,805 per CPU. Plus you have to licence features like disaster recovery, vSan and NSX.

Ease of Use

Hyper-V is tightly integrated with the Windows Server operating system, and is generally considered easier to learn and manage, especially for Windows administrators familiar with Microsoft technologies. Hyper-V Manager offers a straightforward graphical user interface (GUI) for creating, configuring, and managing virtual machines (VMs). You can manage Hyper-V from any domain connected Windows Server providing it has the Hyper-V Snap-In installed and your user account has relevant permissions.

VMware vSphere, while arguably more powerful, has a steeper learning curve and requires some expertise to navigate the vSphere client interface. However, once mastered, the VMware UI is slick and easy to use because it uses a very well designed HTML6 virtualization client. vCenter is also based on an OS called Photon, a heavily customized Linux Kernel, which makes the CLI very reliable and super fast.

Management Tools

Both platforms provide reliable management tools. VMware vCenter Server is a centralized management appliance for multiple ESXi hosts, VMs, and other resources. Hyper-V integrates with tools like System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) and Windows Admin Center for comprehensive management capabilities.

Whichever you prefer comes down to personal choice. I find the Hyper-V integrations quite clunky and slow, plus the UI is basic and unintuitive. However, would I pay more for VMware just because of the UI? I’m not so sure if I were picking up the cost.

Performance and Scalability

VMware is renowned for its excellent performance and scalability, making it suitable for large-scale deployments and demanding workloads, such as enterprise environments with mission-critical applications. VMware is normally the number one choice for the enterprise because of its performance. You can tell that vSphere is a mature, highly efficient product.

It handles errors and issues seamlessly, and every one of the features works faultlessly. You can happily leave VMware running knowing that your virtualization platform is safe and will heal automatically.

Hyper-V also offers good performance but is generally better suited for small to medium-sized deployments. While Hyper-V is reliable, it’s not uncommon for features to simply not work, such as automated failover; if the operating system throws an error, the failover may hang or freeze. From experience, I have had a much more seamless experience with VMware ESXi.

Guest OS Support

Both VMware environments and Hyper-V have their strengths when it comes to guest operating system support and flexibility with virtual machine images. Both support Windows Centric environments and will deploy Linux VMs. VMware shines with its expansive compatibility, welcoming a wide range of guest operating systems, even those that are older, out of manufacturer support or less common. This makes it an excellent choice if you have diverse or legacy workloads that need to be virtualized.

On the other hand, Hyper-V primarily focuses on Windows and Linux, but it’s incredibly well-optimized for these environments, often delivering superior performance and smoother integration with these operating systems.

When it comes to VM images, both platforms allow you to create custom images, giving you control over your virtual environments. However, VMware’s ecosystem boasts a richer selection of pre-configured images available through its marketplace and third-party vendors. Hyper-V users on Azure have access to the extensive Azure Marketplace library.

If you need a wide variety of readily available images or the flexibility to create highly customized ones, VMware might be a better fit.

High Availability (HA)

Both platforms provide features to ensure the high availability of your VMs. VMware offers vMotion for live migration of VMs between hosts without downtime, as well as vSphere HA and Fault Tolerance for automatic VM restarts and protection against data loss.

Hyper-V provides Live Migration and Failover Clustering for similar high-availability capabilities. When considering Hyper-V vs VMWare, I prefer the way that VMWare handles HA.

Security Features

Both platforms offer robust security features to protect your virtual environment. VMware includes encryption, vTPM (virtual Trusted Platform Module), and Secure Boot. Hyper-V offers Shielded VMs, Secure Boot, and vTPM for enhanced security. These services are essentially the same, so both offer goo security features.

VMware and Hyper-V Hosting with Atlantic.Net

Atlantic.Net provides support for both VMware and Hyper-V environments. We offer private cloud hosting with either platform, and our award-winning virtualization solutions can cater to your business’s diverse needs, supporting virtual machines running on any operating system.

Whether you’re managing Windows Servers, utilizing Windows Server licenses, or exploring other operating systems, Atlantic.Net’s offerings can fit your requirements.

Atlantic.Net’s flexible approach allows you to select the virtualization software best aligned with your needs. For organizations heavily invested in Windows Servers, Hyper-V might be a natural fit. VMware’s broad operating system support and extensive feature set make it a compelling choice for enterprise-scale environments.

Contact Atlantic.Net today to explore your options and embark on a seamless virtualization journey.

Our team of experts will assist you in choosing the ideal platform, configuring your environment, and ensuring optimal performance for your virtual machines. Whether you’re seeking enhanced resource utilization, streamlined management, or improved disaster recovery capabilities, Atlantic.Net has the solution for you.

Unlock the full potential of your IT environment with Atlantic.Net.