A technology called virtualization has become a big hit lately. But use of the software could soon kick into an even higher gear, because of new competition and technology changes that could widen its appeal.
The biggest development is a forthcoming offering from giant Microsoft Corp. called Hyper-V, which poses what could be the most serious competition yet to market leader VMware Inc. Microsoft released a test version of the software in February, and some analysts expect Hyper-V to be equal to VMware's products when it comes to doing some tasks.
With virtualization, a layer of software called a hypervisor emulates the underlying hardware of a server, allowing a system to run multiple operating systems and their associated application programs. As a result, one server may do work that once took eight or more machines, reducing not only hardware spending but other costs such as electrical and technicians to maintain multiple systems.
Larry Orecklin, Microsoft's general manager for server infrastructure, said thousands of businesses already are evaluating the Hyper-V product. "We expect very broad adoption; it's certainly priced to assure broad adoption," he said. "For those customers already implementing VMware, they can maintain their current workloads on VMware, and as they expand, they can leverage Microsoft and migrate over time."
Source: WSJ
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