The next step is Microsoft’s Hyper-V Server: This is a hypervisor-based technology included in the Windows Server 2008. This version, specifically designed to be distributed with the servers directly from the hardware vendor, will be very small in size, have a simple interface and will not be able to create clusters of virtualization hosts.

To date, there is no news of a second version of Hyper-V.

I have put together a short list of what I would like to see in the next version of Hyper-V:

Live Migration: Despite the fact that, in many cases, Quick Migration (VM transfer in Hyper-V) is sufficient to handle the needs of system administrators, I believe that the possibility of migrating “hot” VM is a function that cannot be left out of the next version if you want to capture the high of the virtualization market.

Clustered File System: Although not strictly a function of stack virtualization, a clustered file system allows dedicated and exclusive access to a single directory, which, in today’s terms, is a “must have”. In this way, it optimizes the use of disk resources and allows for the easier creation of infrastructure for disaster recovery. Right now, you can use the clustered file system by Sanbolic or Poliserve (now HP) or you can wait for the release of newer versions.

Addition of virtual HW: In order to implement the vision Dynamic IT, it is important, in my opinion, to increase dynamism in the management of virtual machines so as to enable the addition of hot HW and, in particular, CPU, RAM and network cards. All of these features are already supported by Windows Server 2008 in the physical environment; this is only to make them available in the virtual environment.

Improvements in virtual networking: I believe that you can improve that part of virtual networking by adding to it a virtual switch support 802.1x 802.1p. In terms of operating systems, but with the virtual environment fallout, I think that the support for the Teaming network card and 802.1ad should be improved. To date, Windows does not directly support the cards.

Teaming: You have to be a hardware vendor to ensure support for the card compilation. Here, the real problem is that different vendors go out of their very little, therefore providing an OS support level as has been done to the infrastructure discs is a little complicated.

USB Support in virtual machines: In fact, I do not think it’s that big of a necessity to be able to access a USB device from inside a VM (currently, the mouse and keyboard are), but I realize that in some situations it may be useful. To date, the solutions are either to connect to a VM with a session Terminal Service and use the USB devices from this (related to the machine from which opens the session TS), or to use USB-Ethernet converters.

These are only some examples of what I would like to see in the future. Please feel free to add your opinions.

The content in this article was inspired by Giorgio.