Microsoft has announced the
upcoming availability of System Center Virtual Machine Manager
2008, Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.5 and the new
Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 as a no-cost download.
"Now is the time for customers to get virtual," said Bob Kelly,
Microsoft corporate vice-president of infrastructure server
marketing. "With
desktop and datacentre virtualisation offerings available from
Microsoft and its partners, customers are adopting Microsoft
solutions because they have better value and will make IT
operations more dynamic."
Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008, a new hypervisor-based server
virtualization product, will be released within 30 days and be
available at no cost via the web.
Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 provides a simplified, reliable,
and optimised virtualisation system that allows customers to
consolidate Windows or Linux workloads onto a single physical
server.
Hyper-V Server 2008 allows customers to leverage their existing
patching, provisioning, management and support tools, processes and
skills.
Microsoft also said System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008
will be released within 30 days. System Center Virtual Machine
Manager enables customers to configure and deploy new virtual
machines and centrally manage their virtualized infrastructure,
whether running on Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, Microsoft Virtual
Server 2005 R2, Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 or VMware Virtual
Infrastructure 3.
System Center Virtual Machine Manager is part of the System
Center suite of products, which provide centralised,
enterprise-class management of physical and virtual resources
across desktops and datacentres.
Last week, Microsoft released Microsoft Application
Virtualization 4.5, which gives desktop users a boost in fully
harnessing the power of Windows Vista by streaming resource-heavy
applications to the desktop.
This helps eliminate potential software conflicts driving
desktop stability and performance, while simultaneously enabling IT
managers to centrally control key applications and their use, said
Redmond.
Application Virtualization 4.5 will be included as part of
Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack 2008 R2, which is due for
general availability in the coming weeks.
Microsoft started a series of road shows around the world last
month to promote its virtualisation offerings. The US leg starts
today.