Hyper-V for ISVs

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Virtualization is one of the top trends in the IT industry today. Microsoft's partner ecosystem complements and extends our virtualization products with solutions for desktops, servers, applications, storage, networks, test/development, IT consolidation, and business continuity.

Microsoft supports ISVs in the development of virtualization solutions, keeping you on the leading edge. We recently ran a series of Microsoft Hyper-V application compatibility labs for managed ISV partners in Boston, Silicon Valley, Dallas, Chicago, and Atlanta. The goals of the lab were:

- Educate independent software vendors (ISVs) on the value of virtualization and Microsoft’s hypervisor based virtualization technology

- Test server virtualization of ISV applications on Hyper-V

Companies brought their applications on DVD, sample databases on removable drives and others with more complex installation environments brought existing VMWare images. VMWare images were easily converted with Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 (SCVMM).

The lab results were very positive. Several companies are moving to introduce formal production support of their applications on Hyper-V. One company is publishing a whitepaper on best practices for deploying their application on Hyper-V. Many ISV are leveraging the flexibility and server consolidation benefits of moving their development & QA environments to Hyper-V.

As an ISV, Microsoft provides you with opportunities to create advanced and distinctive solutions that support diverse customer needs. There is a Virtualization WMI Provider, a PowerShell Management Library for Hyper-V and the underlying Hypercall APIs are available via the open specification promise.

A Microsoft Virtualization ISV Step-by-Step Resource Guide was recently published here. This guide is a great starting point; it contains detailed information on ISV virtualization scenarios, links to training videos, development reference, planning and deployment guides, benchmark and performance tests, certification, best practices and recommendations for running Microsoft applications such as SQL Server, Exchange and SharePoint in Hyper-V. This guide is full of great references to use internally and with your customers.