Forum Discussion
Hyper-V Server 2022
Free 'Microsoft Hyper-V Server' product update
Since its introduction over a decade ago in Windows Server 2008, Hyper-V technology has been, and continues to be, the foundation of Microsoft’s hypervisor platform. Hyper-V is a strategic technology for Microsoft. Microsoft continues to invest heavily in Hyper-V for a variety of scenarios such as virtualization, security, containers, gaming, and more. Hyper-V is used in Azure, Azure Local, Windows Server, Windows Client, and Xbox among others.
Starting with Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2019, the free ‘Microsoft Hyper-V Server’ product has been deprecated and is the final version of that product. Hyper-V Server 2019 is a free product available for download from the Microsoft Evaluation Center: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/evaluate-hyper-v-server-2019
Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2019 will continue to be supported under its lifecycle policy until January 2029, see this link for additional information: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/products/hyperv-server-2019.
While Microsoft has made a business decision to no longer offer the free 'Microsoft Hyper-V Server' product, this has no impact to the many other products which include the Hyper-V feature and capabilities. This change has no impact to any customers who use Windows Server or Azure Local.
For customers looking to do test or evaluation of the Hyper-V feature, Azure Local includes a 60-day free trial and can be downloaded here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-local/ . Windows Server offers a free 180-day evaluation which can be downloaded from the Evaluation Center here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter
Microsoft remains committed to meeting customers where they are and delivering innovation for on-premises virtualization and bringing unique hybrid capabilities like no other can combined with the power of Azure Arc. We are announcing that Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2019 was the last version of the free download product and that customers begin transitioning to one of the several other products which include Hyper-V or consider Azure.
Thank you,
Elden Christensen
Principal Group PM Manager
Windows Server Development Team
In terms of specific feedback on the shift from Hyper-V Server to Azure Stack HCI as the 'premier hypervisor platform', here's a viewpoint as someone who recommends hypervisor solutions for systems operated by multinational nonprofit sites.
Obviously Microsoft's focus is now 'cloud first', but from the perspective of entities that operate in the developing world, dependence on the cloud (with the dependence on reliable, low-latency, higher-bandwidth Internet connections to work well) is less of an option - there's no point having all your virtual machines in the cloud if you're running over an unreliable 3G or satellite link. Since budgets are limited the cost of a hypervisor is also a key ingredient.
Azure Stack HCI fails on a number of levels:
x Double licensing - we have to license the hypervisor, *and* the Windows Guest virtual machines. This just makes it a complete no-no for nonprofit deployments.
x Dependence on the cloud - if Internet connection is down for a significant period of time this could cause issues (the 30 day disconnect is probably OK - but would be important to ensure this is not reduced/removed at any point to keep it viable).
x Microsoft's do not provide discounts for Azure nonprofits in the same way as they are provided for 'perpetual' products such as Windows Server - instead of a per-item discount, all that is offered is a $3,500 grant. Unlike the perpetual nonprofit discount, this does not scale with the size of the deployment. I can understand why this is the case for normal 'cloud' products - there is no difference in the variable costs (power, connectivity, HVAC, hardware etc) Microsoft need to purchase when providing an Azure product to a nonprofit, whereas perpetual products represent a fixed cost to Microsoft as they are run on-premises - just licensing. However Azure Stack HCI is mostly a fixed cost to Microsoft - it is run on-premises - but for nonprofits it has no discount, like the other cloud products. To put it another way, we can afford to run 1x Azure Stack HCI instance as a non-profit - using the $3,500 annual grant - then we pay full whack for the rest. If Azure Stack HCI was offered at zero/low cost for individuals / nonprofits it would be massively more successful.
x In general you haven't taken into account the fact that Azure Stack HCI is an on-premises product, priced in a cloud fashion. Subscription pricing and the cloud model just don't work well in the scenarios I've described, and having looked into it we had to rule it out as an option, despite the fact it's obviously a good product.
Hope this helps in your future evaluations.
MicrosoftGreat feedback, thank you for taking the time to provide such detailed and constructive feedback. Education is also in this same category. We are thinking about it, no announcements at this time... but THANK YOU
For me, much of the relevant sentiment has already been captured byMinkusMe, Brian Martin and PeterBetyounan (as another fellow Skippy).
This is (for me) entirely about the commercial impact, which doesn't sound like it's been particularly well mapped out to date beyond the US/European context - particularly in the fiscally tight spaces of charities, not-for-profits, some government agencies and education (which has already been acknowledged).
They observation I want to add is that we live in an age where people in these spaces are as inclined to pay for a hypervisor as they are for the air they breathe, and they will scatter like mice at the mention of a permanent operational cost increase. And if Azure AD is anything to go by, that'll only be the "admission price" with select features pared out and charged extra for - much like microtransactions in gaming.
For these clients, technical bells and whistles have precisely zero value as it's purely about avoiding the purchase of multiple physical hosts (even if they're just basic business-grade desktops acting as servers).
The value proposition in having Hyper-V server was that Microsoft was perceived to be providing value, which feeds directly into brand trust. Not just Microsoft's brand, but ours as proponents of Microsoft's (former?) strategy.
As a self-employed consultant and MAPS customer, I'm in a similar position to such clients and maybe I haven't read enough yet, but I'm not seeing how I can retain my zero cost model for the hypervisor (licencing-wise). If I can't see a way, I clearly can't recommend a way to my customers, either, as it's not unheard of for them to be more frugal with their budgets than I am!
For corporates and other profitable entities with the budget and scale to relegate the operational cost into the "don't care" bucket, the Azure Stack HCI is a great fit if they're already an Azure customer. But your "mum and dad" businesses, charitable organisations and the likes frequently don't fit that profile in any way you care to measure it.
Definitely interested in how this topic develops.
You're welcome. I can see why Education would be in the same boat!
One other thing that I would add is the 'minimum two node per site' requirement for Azure Stack HCI also mitigates against using it in small, remote branch offices (again, a nonprofit may not have the space or cash to deploy two devices in a remote office and would just rely on redundant PSUs and resilient storage for basic failover) so while understanding this means less redundancy, would be good for Azure Stack HCI to be developed standalone as well.
