The software maker has finished development work on Virtual Server 2005 and a representative said the final version should be generally available by Oct. 1. The company is pitching the program as a way for companies to reduce the number of servers they have to maintain, noting that companies typically use just a fraction of their servers' capacity.
In particular, Microsoft has long touted the software as an option for companies that have been holding off upgrading to newer server operating systems such as Windows Server 2003 because they still have programs that require an older operating system. With Virtual Server, those programs can run on the older operating system, while the rest of the server's workload runs on the newer system. Fast-food chain Jack in the Box has been an early customer using Virtual Server for such a purpose.
But the company now sees customers like that as the minority. "It's not as big as an opportunity as we initially scoped it to be," said Eric Berg, a group product manager in Microsoft's Windows and Enterprise Management division.
An area that has emerged as potentially bigger for Microsoft, Berg said, is test and development, where companies need to test multiple versions of software to settle on which software eventually makes into production.
Virtual Server 2005 has been a long time coming. Microsoft originally hoped to release the product last year, but delayed it to this year for further testing.
View: Full Article
News source: c|net News