A new report indicates that despite VMware’s higher upfront costs, the ESXi platform’s VM density advantages give the virtualization giant a leg up over Microsoft’s Hyper-V. Find out where other analysts stand on the issue and where Microsoft’s virtual efforts could be headed

VMware Inc.’s ESXi 3.5 platform consistently posted a 50 per cent VM density per physical server advantage over Microsoft Corp.’s Hyper-V, leading VMware users to lower costs per application and reduced guest OS licencing fees, according to a new report from the Taneja Group.

Jeff Boles, senior analyst and director of validation services at the Hopkinton, Mass.-based research firm, said while ESXi demonstrated a “1.5 to 1” density advantage over Hyper-V across a multitude of application workloads, in some cases ESXi could achieve a “2 to 1” advantage.

That means that if users can safely consolidate eight servers on Microsoft’s platform, they will be able to comfortably consolidate 12 to 16 servers with VMware, he said.

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