Microsoft whips up virtualization spin ahead of VMWorld

By John Fontana, Network World
September 06, 2007 06:00 PM ET

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Microsoft Thursday went on the offensive saying its first virtual machine management tool would ship next month and spinning its virtualization wares and strategy days ahead of rival VMware’s annual conference scheduled for next week.

Microsoft is pushing a strategy around a single management console as the hub for any number of virtualization options whether they reside on the server or desktop. To that end, the company said development of its Systems Center Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) 2007, for managing virtual machines running on Virtual Server 2005 R2, is complete and the software will ship next month.

VMM helps maximize physical server utilization, and centralize management and provisioning of virtual machines. The software also helps manage physical servers and is a core piece of Microsoft’s emerging Windows-centric management platform under its Dynamic Systems Initiative (DSI).

Critics say the company’s tactic is to push a holistic approach to managing server and desktop virtualization from a central point and to shield its current lack of a viable server virtualization product with a smoke screen centered on its desktop technologies – Virtual PC, Softricity Applications Virtualization and Terminal Services.

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Microsoft's virtualization plan
Looking to build a centralized platform for managing physical and virtual servers and desktops.

Software	Shipping	On deck
System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2007	Microsoft will release first version next month that supports Virtual Server 2005 R2.	The next version slated for late next year supports Windows Server Virtualization.
Terminal Services	Microsoft calls this Presentation Virtualization but it's nothing more than semantics. It's the same old thin-client server.	Early 2008 release of Windows Server 2008 adds features such as application remoting that Microsoft says make it more like a virtualized environment.
Virtual Server 2005 R2	The only server-virtualization software from Microsoft is not generally considered an equal to VMware's enterprise platform.	Windows Server Virtualization — an add-on to Windows Server 2008 — will ship in late 2008 and is expected to raise the stakes vs. VMware.
SoftGrid Application Virtualization	Streaming applications to desktop that run on dedicated virtualized operating system.	Next year will add security features and closer ties with System Center Configuration Manager 2007.

Click to see: Microsoft's virtualization plan

“We are convinced they are trying to change the terms and lingo to defuse the focus on server virtualization to many different forms of virtualization so people stop looking so carefully at how far behind Microsoft is compared to VMware in the server virtualization space,” says Peter Pawlak, an analyst with independent research firm Directions on Microsoft. “They are using the term ‘presentation virtualization' but it is Terminal Services and it has been around forever and no one has ever called it presentation virtualization. There is nothing there that is new or different" in terms of virtualization.

Microsoft says Terminal Services will get new features, including application remoting, when Windows Server 2008 ships early next year.