Microsoft does bundling U-turn on hypervisor

Microsoft has said it will sell its new virtualisation technology separately from its Windows Server OS, in addition to as a bundle - a reversal of its earlier position.

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 virtualisation technology even on servers that aren't destined to run Windows.

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Microsoft also announced it will have eight versions of Windows Server, ranging from $469 for its web server product, to $3,999 for the data centre edition. The software is set for a formal launch on 27 February, with the code due to be finalised early next year.

Virtualisation 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 OSes to run on the same hardware, handling functions such as memory and storage management. Control of that layer is viewed as strategically important, particularly for companies that want to sell management software and services tied to virtualisation.

Redmond will offer the Datacenter, Enterprise and Standard versions of Windows both with and without Hyper-V, with the virtualisation technology costing an additional $28. It will also sell the hypervisor - formerly code-named Viridian - by itself for $28.

The hypervisor virtualisation technology is seen as a key feature of Windows Server 2008, although the company did trim some features to avoid further delays.

Today, less than four per cent of servers are virtualised, even though less than a tenth of servers are running at even 10 per cent of their capacity, said Andrew Lees, corporate vice president, Server & Tools Marketing and Solutions Group at Microsoft. He added, over time, more than half of servers will be virtualised.

Lees said: "In the future the data centre is one blob. The only thing that knows what's running on what machine is the management software."

Microsoft's primary competition in the virtualisation world is industry leader VMware.

Ina Fried works for CNET News.com