Features

Microsoft Outlines Future Virtualisation Strategy

By Sophia Mayengbam

Microsoft Corp. has announced that its hypervisor-based solution is on track to be available with the upcoming Microsoft Windows Server 'Longhorn' operating system. Microsoft expects having a beta release of Windows Server virtualisation by the end of 2006 and plans to release to manufacturing (RTM) within 180 days of Windows Server 'Longhorn' RTM. The move will help Microsoft compete with the likes of VMware and Xen, who have already embraced the hypervisor design.

Microsoft also announced the intent to acquire Softricity Inc., a provider of application virtualisation solutions to extend its virtualisation strategy.

Along with the hypervisor news, Microsoft also announced that a beta version of its System Center Virtual Machine Manager, formerly codenamed "Carmine", will be released within the next three months.

Microsoft said that the three Strategies will provide a comprehensive and well-managed virtualisation solution for customers across servers and desktops.

Virtualisation enables users to run multiple operating systems on a single physical server via virtual machines. It also can be used to view multiple physical machines as a single virtualized pool of resources.

Microsoft said virtualisation is a key technology for reducing the cost and complexity of IT management, and it has committed significant resources to making virtualisation more broadly accessible and affordable for customers.

"Microsoft’s virtualisation strategy contrasts with current alternatives for virtual machine management, which tend to be complex, expensive and require specialized skills," says Bob Muglia, Microsoft’s senior vice president of the Server and Tools Business. "We look at virtualisation as key technology to help customers achieve self-managing dynamic systems. Across the platform, operating system, applications and management layers we’re delivering functionality and capabilities that enable our customers to significantly reduce operating costs, drive up server utilization and achieve better ROI through full featured virtualisation solutions."

Hardware virtualisation technology is used to consolidate multiple physical machines onto a lesser number of physical machines running virtualisation. Virtualization can also be used to rehost legacy environments especially as older generation hardware becomes more difficult and costly to maintain. And because software is abstracted from the hardware, virtualisation is a good solution for disaster recovery environments as well.

"As we see higher and higher performance available in the x86 and x64 hardware, customers tell us that they want to get the most performance and flexibility out of their hardware in order to maximise their server investment," Muglia says. "Windows Server virtualisation will enable customers to increase physical server utilisation, reduce costs and create an agile and dynamic datacenter."

Microsoft had last year released Virtual Server 2005, which enables users to create virtual machines in Window's environments.


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