Extract from the OVF 2.0 FAQ:
What are the new improvements/features of OVF 2.0 vs. OVF 1.0?
OVF 1.0 has provided the industry with a standard packaging format for
virtual machines – solving a critical business need for software
vendors and cloud service providers. OVF 1.0 has been widely adopted
to meet this need and is now an international standard (adopted by
ISO/IEC in 2011).
OVF 2.0 brings an enhanced set of capabilities to the packaging of
virtual machines, making the standard applicable to a broader range of
cloud use cases that are emerging as the industry enters the cloud
era. The most significant improvements include support for network
configuration along with the ability to encrypt the package to ensure
safe delivery.
New features of OVF 2.0 include:
- Improved support for network configuration
- Package encryption for safe delivery
- Scaling and deployment options
- Support for basic placement policies, including affinity and availability placement
- Shared disks
- Advanced device boot order
- Advanced mechanisms for passing data to guest
- Updated CIM schemas