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Microsoft moves on virtualization
initiative
11 October, 2005
By Liam Lahey
Microsoft Corp. has announced the next step in its virtualization
efforts, including product investments, third-party relationships
and licensing improvements, to ease customer adoption of virtualization
technology and enable customers to establish self-managing
dynamic systems.
"Virtualization is a key technology to help liberate
IT but must be implemented as part of a broad approach of
enabling self-managing dynamic systems," said Andrew
Lees, corporate vice president of the Server and Tools Business
at Microsoft in Redmond, Wash. "We are announcing a new
approach to software licensing, a virtualization and management
technology road map, and broad industry support to enable
customers to more rapidly adopt virtualization technology
while also advancing toward our self-managing dynamic systems
vision."
In an effort to help customers develop so-called dynamic
systems, Microsoft said it is providing more cost-effective,
flexible and simplified licensing for the use of the Windows
Server system line of products in virtual machine environments.
These enhancements will be offered through volume licensing,
starting Dec. 1, 2005. Updated retail and OEM licensing will
be available with new product versions, also starting Dec.
1st, officials said.
Further, Microsoft said it would provide:
*New virtualization use rights for Windows Server 2003 R2
Enterprise Edition and Windows Server "Longhorn"
Datacenter Edition enable cost-effective consolidation. Licenses
for the upcoming Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition
will allow customers to run up to four virtual instances on
one physical server at no additional cost, extending the savings
customers can realize through server consolidation on the
Windows Server platform. Licenses for the Datacenter Edition
of the version of Windows Server, code-named "Longhorn,"
will give customers the right to run an unlimited number of
virtual instances on one physical server.
*Licensing by running instance improves the value and flexibility
of Windows Server System products. Customers will no longer
license every inactive or stored instance of a Windows Server
System product. Customers can now create and store unlimited
numbers of instances, including those for backup and recovery,
and pay only for the maximum number of running instances at
any given time.
*Portable licensing for the dynamic enterprise allows customers
to easily deploy and run Windows Server System products on
any physical server licensed for the software. Customers can
move active instances from one licensed server box to another
without limitation, as long as the physical server is licensed
for the Windows Server System product.
*Per-processor licensing better aligns with resources used.
With Windows Server System products that are licensed per
processor, such as Microsoft SQL Server(TM), BizTalk(R) Server,
and Internet Security & Acceleration Server, customers
will have greater flexibility to stack multiple instances
on a machine by licensing for the number of virtual processors
being used.
In addition, Microsoft licenses royalty-free the Virtual
Hard Disk (VHD) format, enabling industry vendors to innovate
new virtual machine management solutions. A common file format
helps improve security, reliability and cost-efficiency for
customers and helps ensure a uniform product support system.
Microsoft also announced that software vendors Acronis Inc.,
Akimbi Systems, BMC Software Inc., Consonica, Emulex Corp.,
Gilles Vollant Software, Leostream Corp., PlateSpin Ltd.,
PolyServe Inc., QLogic Corp., Quest Software Inc., Surgient,
Ultrabac Software and XenSource Inc. endorsed Microsoft's
open approach to virtualization and announced their plans
to build solutions that integrate with Virtual Server 2005
R2 or support the VHD format. Microprocessor and hardware
manufacturers including Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Dell
Inc., Fujitsu Ltd., HP, Hitachi Ltd., IBM, Intel Corporation,
NEC Corp. and Unisys announced support for Microsoft's virtualization
solutions. -30-
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