Haff said Microsoft is in a good position to get its revenue from the software and services needed to manage all that. The only thing that knows what's running on what machine is the management software." "In the future the data center is one blob. Today, he said, it's not uncommon to see servers with sticky notes, such as the blue machine runs enterprise resource planning software, while the green one runs e-mail. That will lead to a fundamental shift in how data centers are run. Over time, more than half of servers will be virtualized, Lees said. Today, less than 4 percent of servers are virtualized, even though less than a tenth of servers are running at even 10 percent of their capacity, said Andrew Lees, corporate vice president, Server & Tools Marketing and Solutions Group at Microsoft. While the sale of hypervisors by themselves is not seen as a huge financial opportunity, control of that layer is viewed as strategically important, particularly for companies that want to sell management software and services tied to virtualization. Virtualization is a broad term for technology that lets one computer act as many, while hypervisors refer specifically to a thin layer that runs on a server and allows multiple operating systems to run on the same hardware, handling functions like memory and storage management. The hypervisor virtualization technology is seen as a key feature of Windows Server 2008, although the company did trim some features to avoid further delays. I think they've taken a look at reality and reality is basically not compatible with that view." "Microsoft was very much in the 'virtualization is a feature of the operating system' camp. "That's a really a complete reversal in position for Microsoft," Haff said. Illuminata analyst Gordon Haff said the move reflects Microsoft's adjustment to market realities. It will also sell the Hypervisor, formerly code-named Viridian, by itself for $28. The company will offer the Standard, Enterprise, and Datacenter versions of Windows both with and without Hyper-V, with the virtualization technology costing an additional $28. The software is set for a formal launch February 27, with the code due to be finalized early next year. Microsoft also announced that it will have eight versions of Windows Server, ranging from $469 for its Web server product to $3,999 for the data center edition. The software maker said it still expects most people who ultimately get its hypervisor to do so as part of Windows Server 2008, but said the move will allow server makers to include the Hyper-V virtualization technology even on servers that aren't destined to run Windows. Reversing earlier plans, Microsoft said Monday that it will sell its new virtualization technology separately from its Windows Server operating system, in addition to as a bundle.
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