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Cloud & operations

What is a hypervisor?

A hypervisor lets multiple virtual machines share one physical server. See the difference between type 1 and 2, and VMware vs. Hyper-V.

In short

A hypervisor is the software layer that makes virtualisation possible: it lets one physical server run multiple virtual machines (VMs), each with its own operating system, behaving like independent servers.

The hypervisor distributes the physical machine's CPU, RAM and storage between the virtual ones and keeps them isolated from each other.

A distinction is made between type 1 hypervisors, which run directly on the hardware and are used in server rooms and data centres (VMware ESXi, Microsoft Hyper-V and Proxmox are the familiar names), and type 2, which run as a program on top of an ordinary operating system for testing and development. Virtually all modern server operations are virtualised, and the entire cloud model is built on the same principle.

After Broadcom's acquisition of VMware, licence prices have risen sharply, and many Danish businesses are therefore re-evaluating their platform. MI Support IT advises on both on-premises hypervisor environments and migration to Azure.

Back to the glossary

What is a hypervisor?

A hypervisor is the software that creates and manages virtual machines: it takes one physical server and divides it into several isolated, virtual servers, each running its own operating system. Without virtualisation, every server role would require its own physical machine; with a hypervisor, ten roles can share two physical hosts, with better utilisation, easier backup and faster recovery, because a VM is just files that can be moved and copied.

Type 1 vs. type 2 hypervisor

  • Type 1 (bare metal): runs directly on the hardware with no operating system underneath. This is the production class: VMware ESXi, Microsoft Hyper-V, Proxmox VE. All serious server operations (and every cloud data centre) run type 1.
  • Type 2 (hosted): runs as a program on top of Windows or macOS, e.g. VMware Workstation, VirtualBox and Parallels. Fine for testing, development and running Windows on a Mac, but not for production.

In practice, businesses encounter type 1 in the server room and type 2 on the developer's laptop. Related technology: VDI, where it is desktops that are virtualised, and containers, which share one OS instead of virtualising entire machines.

VMware, Hyper-V or cloud?

VMware has for years been the de facto standard with the most mature ecosystem. Hyper-V comes with Windows Server, is tightly integrated with the Microsoft stack and covers most SMB needs at no extra licence cost. Proxmox and other open-source alternatives are gaining ground as lightweight, licence-free platforms. And then there is the third answer: not owning a hypervisor at all, but leaving it to Azure and running the servers as IaaS. The right choice depends on how much local iron you genuinely need, and for many SMBs that number has fallen year after year.

VMware prices are rising: what are the alternatives?

After Broadcom's acquisition of VMware, the licensing model has been switched to subscriptions with significantly higher prices and fewer product bundles, and many smaller environments have seen costs multiply at renewal. That has triggered a genuine wave of migration. The alternatives, in the order they should be considered:

  1. Move the workloads to the cloud: if the servers are standard Windows/Linux anyway, Azure is often the natural next step: pay for consumption instead of licences and iron.
  2. Switch to Hyper-V: included in the Windows Server licence, well proven, and the migration tools are mature.
  3. Switch to Proxmox/open source: licence-free and flexible, but requires someone who can operate it.
  4. Stay on VMware: can still be right for large, complex environments, but do the maths before signing the renewal.

From your own servers to Azure

The migration does not have to be all or nothing. The typical journey: map the VMs, move the generic ones first (file servers, application servers), let heavy or licence-bound systems stay on-premises for a transition period, and shut down hardware as it is emptied. The gain is not only licences. It is also the end of owning ageing iron, paying for power and cooling and crossing your fingers at every hardware failure. See cloud and hosting for the different models.

How MI Support IT can help

MI Support IT operates both on-premises Hyper-V/VMware environments and pure cloud setups, and helps with the maths and the migration when the VMware renewal lands. See cloud and hosting and Microsoft Azure, or contact us for a review of your options.

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