Fortune 500 Firm Leaving VMware for Microsoft Hyper-V

It’s only one win. But for Microsoft’s Hyper-V virtualization push, it could be a key victory in the global virtualization war vs. VMware. Specifically, CH2M HILL expects to save a projected $3.2 million over the next several years by switching from VMware virtualization solutions to Microsoft’s Hyper-V hypervisor. Here’s the story.

CH2M HILL, which specializes in engineering, procurement, construction, management, and operation, has been an eager virtualization adopter. The company virtualized 350 datacenter servers and 100 regional office servers by way of VMware ESX between 2005 and 2007.

Now, with the economy in a bad state, CH2M HILL says in a Microsoft press release that they’ll save $280,000 in software fees by switching platforms to Microsoft’s Hyper-V, which comes out to about $5,000 a server. And given that there are 600 field servers slated to be virtualized soon, that multiplies out to roughly the $3 million figure.

With 30 VMware virtual machines already migrated, Microsoft expects to have the changeover complete within three years.

Attacking Before VMworld

Microsoft’s timing for the CH2M HILL announcement is hardly surprising. Thousands of of virtualization specialists are set to attend the VMworld conference starting Aug. 30 in San Francisco. (Here’s a preview.)

During the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC10) in July, Microsoft COO Kevin Turner claimed Microsoft’s Hyper-V had 24.4 percent of the virtualization market, up about 6.1 points in recent months. It’s safe to expect more competitive statements from Microsoft during the VMworld event.

But don’t weep for VMware. Motley Fool notes that VMware’s stock has risen 158 percent since September 2009 as more customers flocked to VMware’s software.

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