vSphere 5 vs Hyper-V and other virtualization products

Here are few resources that will help you to compare of vSphere with Hyper-V and understand the benefits and costs involved

1. VMware vSphere 5 vs. Microsoft Hyper-V R2 SP1

2. VMware vSphere 5 Features and Benefits Compared to Microsoft Hyper-V R2 SP1, Citrix XenServer 5.6 SP2 and Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization 2.2

3. Microsoft's Hyper-V R2 vs. VMware's vSphere: A cost comparison

VMware's First Cloud Certification

 VMware's First Cloud Certification

Recently VMware’s first certification around cloud computing quietly went into beta. Let’s learn more about this new certification option, the VCP-Infrastructure as a Service (or VCP-IaaS) certification…

For more information please visit below Vmware Blog

http://blogs.vmware.com/vcloud/2012/07/vmwares-first-cloud-certification.html

Link Aggregate Group (LAG.) A LAG cannot span multiple Virtual Connect modules

 Link Aggregate Group (LAG.) A LAG cannot span multiple Virtual Connect modules.

By adding multiple uplink ports from the same I/O module, and the Connection Mode is
set to Auto, Virtual Connect will attempt to form a LACP (802.3ad) Link Aggregate
Group (LAG.) A LAG cannot span multiple Virtual Connect modules. Changing the
Connection Mode to Failover will prohibit Virtual Connect from forming a LAG. The
upstream switch must have its 802.3ad configuration mode set to On.

HP BladeSystem Interconnect - HP Virtual Connect Flex-10 Module: Internal Stacking Link X7 or X8 Will Be Disabled when You Insert a SFP+ Module

HP BladeSystem Interconnect - HP Virtual Connect Flex-10 Module: Internal Stacking Link X7 or X8 Will Be Disabled when You Insert a SFP+ Module


Information
Port X7 and port X8 is internally cross linked to an adjacent HP Virtual Connect Flex-10 module. This connection is used a Stacking link (Virtual Connect Flex-10 bay 1, port X7 - Virtual Connect Flex-10 bay 2, port X7 and Virtual Connect Flex-10 bay 1, port X8 - Virtual Connect Flex-10 bay 2, port X8 ) between the Virtual Connect Flex-10 interconnects.
Port X7 and port X8 can also be used to connect to an external network switch. The moment an external SFP+ module is inserted in port X7 or port X8 , the internal stacking link (Virtual Connect Flex-10 bay 1, port X7 - Virtual Connect Flex-10 bay 2, port X7 , or Virtual Connect Flex-10 bay 1, port X8 - Virtual Connect Flex-10 bay 2, port X8 ) is disabled and not visible anymore as Stacking link within Virtual Connect Manager (VCM)
Details

This is working as designed.
Source:  http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&taskId=120&prodSeriesId=3794423&prodTypeId=329290&objectID=c01677930

VMware vSphere 5 Editions for Enterprise

VMware vSphere 5 Enterprise

VMware vSphere Enterprise edition includes capabilities such as
1. High availability
2. Data recovery
3. VMware vSphere vMotion
4. Hot add
5. VMware vSphere vShield Zones
6 Fault tolerance
7. VMware vSphere Storage vMotion, 
8. VMware vShield DRS
9. VMware vSphere DPM
8 Virtual Serial Port Concentrator
9. VMware vSphere Storage APIs for array integration and multipathing.


VMware vSphere 5 Enterprise Plus
VMware vSphere Enterprise Plus includes all the capabilities
of vSphere Enterprise and following additional features

1. Expanded memory entitlement,
2. 32-way VMware vSphere Virtual SMP
3. VMware vSphere Distributed Switch
4. VMware Host Profiles
5. VMware vSphere Auto-Deploy
6. VMware vSphere Storage I/O Control
7. VMware vSphere Network I/O Control
8 VMware vSphere Profile-Driven Storage
9. VMwarevSphere Storage DRS.