Microsoft is to retire its Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter (MVMC) in favor Azure Recovery Services.

The company has set a deadline of June 3, 2017, after which time MVMC will no longer be available to download, and all references of it will be removed from its website.

MVMC is a tool that does what it says – it converts virtual machines. Using the tool, it’s possible to convert VMware Inc. hosts into Hyper-V hosts, turn physical machines into virtual ones, and convert VMs to run on the Azure cloud.

With Azure Recovery Services you’ll still be able to convert VMs to other formats, but the caveat is that Microsoft’s Azure cloud will be the target. Which means you’ll be forced to use Azure no matter what, even if you download the VM after its been converted. The only good news is that Microsoft offers free hosting for VMs in Azure Recovery for up to 31 days, which means you won’t have to pay for the privilege if you intend to download it afterwards.

Interestingly, but not surprisingly, Microsoft has left a little loophole, saying that Microsoft Virtual Machine Manager (SC 2012 R2 VMM) will continue to support the migration of VMware vCenter deployments to Hyper-V after the shut off date. Which means that so long as you’re dumping VMware in favor of Microsoft, you won’t be forced onto Azure. But only then.

Redmond chiefs have justified the move by saying they plan to focus all virtual machine converting efforts on Azure, which means you’ll have to use the cloud to get access to the most modern tools.

There are of course many other alternative VM conversion tools available. For example, hypervisors like VMware Workstation and VirtualBox can both convert VMs to numerous different formats, and VMware has a separate converter for physical to virtual machines.

Those wishing to make the most of MVMC can download the tool here until Microsoft kills it off next year.

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