The new Microsoft hypervisor will reach most companies through the inclusion in Windows Server 2008 but this doesn’t grant that it will be deployed and tested. So Microsoft is figuring out ways to build confidence in the product without obliging the potential customers to become early adopters.
One of these ways, unnoticed so far, seems pretty brilliant: requiring Hyper-V as mandatory component for every classroom course (the Microsoft Official Curriculums or MOCs) that its learning partners teach worldwide.
To sell MOCs each Microsoft learning center has in fact to comply a Hardware Level blueprint that describes the minimum hardware requirement to install the course products and run the labs.
The new Hardware Level 6.0 guideline that Microsoft recently released includes Hyper-V as mandatory component for every course:
- Hardware Requirements
- 64-bit Intel Virtualization Technology or AMD Virtualization processor (2.8 GHz dual core or better recommended)
- Dual 120 GB hard disks 7200 RPM SATA or better (striped)
- 4 GB RAM expandable to 8 GB or higher
- DVD (dual layer recommended)
- Network adapter
- Sound card
- Video adapter aero-capable recommended
- Super VGA monitor (17 inch/ 43 cm)
- Software Requirements
- 64-bit Windows Server 2008 Enterprise Edition
- Hyper-V role configured
- Microsoft Learning Lab Launcher – Hyper-V version
The first courses requiring a Hardware Level 6 class will be the ones about Windows Small Business Server 2008, to be released in H2 2008.
In 2009 the requirement will be extended to a new course about the upcoming Microsoft Exchange Server 14, and over time to all other courses.
The learning partner may need several months to upgrade their classroom facility but at the end every customer purchasing a course will interact with Hyper-V.
The MOCs length varies from one day to five days: during such timeframe the student has all the time to interact with the new hypervisor and most of all to verify its performance.
Best of all, professionals in different IT areas will become familiar with Hyper-V and once back in their companies may recommend the product or at least accept its adoption with easy.