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Rivals Boost Virtualisation Tools

Sunday, 16 April 2006 by Michel Roth

The nascent market for virtualisation on commodity hardware is heating up as Microsoft, XenSource and Virtual Iron Software build out capabilities to challenge sector leader VMware. At the LinuxWorld Conference & Expo this week in Boston, Microsoft said it was making Virtual Server 2005 R2 available as a free download. Microsoft said the move was in keeping with its strategy of making virtualisation less risky and less costly. Last year, the firm opened up Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition so that up to four versions can be run without incurring extra costs. It also represents an attempt to keep pace with virtualisation leader VMware, which last year made its GSX product free.

In another significant change, Microsoft said it has also adapted Virtual Server to run Red Hat and Novell Suse Linux distributions as guest operating systems, and will provide 24-hour technical support for companies seeking to run Linux side by side with Windows.

In a dig at VMware, Microsoft suggested that its plans to deliver the next-generation "Windows Longhorn" Server with virtualisation built in will deter firms from making large investments in rival virtualisation technology today. Further out, Microsoft plans a service pack for Virtual Server 2005 R2 to allow the software to support Intel and AMD on-chip virtualisation capabilities. A beta version is due in the next eight weeks and a full release scheduled for early 2007.

Elsewhere, XenSource showed off its XenEnterprise program that can run on Windows systems. A commercial release is due by October this year.

Also at LinuxWorld, Virtual Iron said it would use the Xen open-source hypervisor technology to run Linux and Windows. The firm said that version 3.0 of Virtual Iron will have native support for Intel's Virtualisation Technology (VT). A beta release of version 3.0 for Linux guests will be available in July with Windows to follow in September.

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