Year: 2004

Forrester says firms shouldn’t get suckered into a feature function or price shootout – the real contest here is to see which vendor’s product will integrate better with data center automation solutions that slash the costs of managing lots of OSes, whether they are virtual or physical.
Microsoft has shipped Virtual Server 2005, which lets firms consolidate multiple server instances–often called virtual machines (VMs)–on one server. Making servers virtual slashes hardware costs, eases administration tasks, and lets firms relocate servers without compatibility issues. Virtual Server also finally adds a prominent product to the Dynamic Systems Initiative (DSI), Microsoft’s take on next generation data architecture, which Forrester calls Organic IT.

To get the final details on the launch of Virtual Server, Forrester spoke with Microsoft Group Product Manager Eric Berg. In order to compete with VMware’s market-leading server virtualization products, Virtual Server will cost less, be integrated with Microsoft management tools, and be the only Microsoft-supported virtualization product–but it won’t officially support VMs other than Windows, such as Linux.

The EMC subsidiary plans to announce on Monday a test version of Assured Computing Environment, which lets an outside computer run a second instance of Windows that can be locked down to prevent unauthorized copying or network access. ACE will be shipped by the end of the year, said Michael Mullany, vice president of marketing at VMware.

Without something like ACE, a company would have to supply a remote user or contractor with an entirely separate computer, Mullany said.

“It allows you to completely control the user environment at a very fundamental level,” he said.

To keep proprietary information from spreading to computers outside a company, ACE can be configured to block access to USB memory devices, floppy drives, printers or other devices that could be used to save or print information stored on corporate networks. In addition, it enables outsiders use a company’s approved software collection, making it harder for foreign computers to infect corporate networks with viruses or other dangerous software.

The product serves a useful niche, Illuminata analyst Gordon Haff said. “They’re essentially repurposing VMware workstation technology for a different audience and use. But VMware’s ambitions seem modest here. They’re not making…claims of new computing paradigms.”

VMware competes chiefly with Microsoft, whose Virtual Server product also lets computers run several operating systems at the same time through the use of software called virtual machines. VMware has been expanding to higher-level software such as VMotion, which lets customers move a running virtual machine from one physical computer to another.

ACE can be set to stop working at a specific time–for example, when a contractor’s job is scheduled to be finished so no further access to a company’s network will be required.

The software is expected to cost about $100 per computer when it ships by the end of the year. It will first be available for Windows computers, with Linux support to follow.

An administration package called ACE Manager, used to configure how ACE PCs will work, will cost more, Mullany said.

The software, which should ship by 1 October, is Microsoft’s response to clear server partitioning leader VMware – a unit of EMC. However, this arrives four years behind VMware, two years behind target and without most of the high-end features – most notably support for Linux – now common in VMware’s ESX Server product. But Microsoft can offer customers something VMware can’t, and that’s Microsoft support for software running on a virtual machine or partition and a cheap price.

Microsoft has turned away customers looking for partitioning help once they admit to running Windows on a spliced server via VMware. It’s not a practice Microsoft is terribly public about, but it is well-known policy. To offset this, VMware has teamed up with big boys such as IBM, HP and Dell to help out customers and take care of Windows support issues.

VMware’s strong alliances have vaulted it to a unique state in the market for servers based on Intel and AMD processors. The large server OEMs have all agreed to resell VMware’s products instead of building partitioning tools of their own. For IBM and HP, in particular, this is a major role reversal compared to their Unix server strategies, where each vendor writes its own complex partitioning code.

This shouldn’t be surprising since the x86 server market enjoys far more standardization than the RISC and Itanium market. The whole idea is to keep software costs as low as possible, since the x86 space is largely a commodity market.

The downside of VMware, and software like it, is that it’s years behind similar Unix tools. IBM, HP and Sun Microsystems have all released fairly amazing stuff for running multiple workloads on a single server and tweaking the processing power, bandwidth and storage for each partition. In many cases, this software is tied into the vendors’ larger utility computing and capacity pricing models. This brings customers closer and closer to the promised virtualization orgasm where servers and software manage themselves.

VMware’s software is well-respected but not on the level of these Unix tools. Both ESX Server and GSX Server are primarily used for software development and testing. Customers can see how well software packages work on different versions of an operating system and test out patches. They can do all of this on a single server instead of spending loads of cash test systems. There are production deployments but not an overwhelming number of them.

Microsoft comes in lower on the totem pole. It acquired a product from Connectix, once meant to ship in 2002, and then spent 18 months retooling the code. The original Connectix code was based on the company’s Virtual PC software for running multiple OSes on the same desktop, and one can only hope Microsoft moved well away from this low-end software with its server product. Sadly, this doesn’t seem to be the case as Microsoft still requires a host operating system to run Virtual Server, while VMware’s ESX server uses its own operating system – a feature which makes many of the more complex partitioning functions possible.

In addition, Microsoft only supports one extra OS per processor, while VMware can support up to eight partitions per processor. VMware has tools for clustering virtual machines, adjusting processing power for different software workloads and disaster recovery technology. Microsoft is still working to catch up in all these areas.

Microsoft’s Virtual Server can run Windows, Linux, OS/2 and just about any other x86 operating system, but it won’t support non-Windows OSes. In a market based on the premise of helping customers consolidate their products, this is a big drawback. Microsoft’s lack of support seems like a political decision – and one for which customers have every right to complain.

– Cleaning house
To Microsoft’s credit, it’s not pricing Virtual Server as if it were a real competitor to VMware. At $499 for the standard edition (up to 4 processors) and $999 for the enterprise edition (up to 32 processors), Virtual Server comes in more as a handy tool than a consolidation miracle. Customers can get rid of some old servers running ancient Windows apps and bring the software over to a single, powerful new server. It’s really more for cleaning house than total data center reconstruction – something companies such as Qualcomm have done with VMware.

VMware’s high-end ESX Server product comes in around $4,000 for 2 CPU systems, $7,000 for 4 CPU systems and $15,000 for 8 CPU systems. GSX Server starts close to $2,000 for a 2 CPU box.

So, if you have some nagging applications hanging around that currently demand their own server, Microsoft’s product might be the right choice for you. Just pop the suckers onto a single box and work with Microsoft to keep crashes at a minimum. This should be a fairly common scenario for mostly Microsoft shops, especially with Redmond providing support.

If, however, data center consolidation is your game, then VMware should probably be your partitioning vendor of choice. Customers can run more virtual machines, use more management tools and put both Windows and Linux on the same box. It will cost you more, but the quality is worth the price.

Over time, customers can expect virtual machine technology to improve considerably. Intel, for example, is currently working on its Silvervale partitioning technology. This will handle many of the calls typically done by software in hardware and improve the performance of both VMware and Microsoft’s code.

Virtual Server 2005 is Microsoft’s virtual machine (VM) solution for Windows Server 2003 which enables customers to run multiple operating systems on a single physical server. Join us for this 60-minute session to learn how Virtual Server can help you increase operational efficiency in three key areas: legacy application migration, server consolidation, software development and test environments.

– TechNet Webcasts: Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 – Best Practices for Migrating and Consolidating Existing Application Servers

Attend this session to learn best practices and determining when to “virtualize”, re-write or port existing applications. Also, view a demonstration of the Virtual Server Migration Tool automating the task of migrating existing applications into virtual machines.

– TechNet Webcast: Virtual Server 2005 – Setting up a virtual test and development environment

Attend this session to learn how Microsoft’s Virtual Server 2005 can help you build a cost effective virtual test lab that requires less hardware and time.

– TechNet Webcast: Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 – Installing a two-node virtual machine cluster

Attend this session to learn how to create a two-node cluster of virtual machines running Windows Server 2003 – a key feature of Virtual Server 2005. This session will include a demonstration of the steps involved in building a cluster of virtual machines.

– TechNet Webcast: Virtual Server 2005 COM API: Automating Your Virtual World

The session will focus on demonstrating small scriplet building blocks and assembling them into useful scripts. Session assumes knowledge on writing VBScripts.

– TechNet Webcast: Microsoft Virtual Server Technical Overview

– RAM disk mode
Create a copy of an image file on RAM and mount it. Enables to open read-only files as writable media. Changes are not written back to the image file (discarded on close).

– Supported image size
160KB, 180KB, 320KB, 360KB, 640KB, 720KB, 820KB, 1.2MB, 1.44MB, 1.68MB, 1.72MB, 2.88MB

– WinImage compressed image (*.IMZ) support (RAM disk mode only)

– Formatting virtual media
New images created with VFD are pre-formatted. Enables to format virtual media when Windows’ format doesn’t work.

– Switching write-protection of virtual drive on the fly.

– Permanent drive letter
A drive letter is not removed when an image is closed. Drive letters are preserved until explicitly removed. The same drive letter is assigned the next time the driver starts.

VMware, Inc., the global leader in virtual infrastructure software for industry-standard systems, today announced that VMware VirtualCenter was selected a winner in the Best New Product category of the Windows IT Pro Readers’ Choice Awards. In addition, VMware Workstation was selected a winner in the Best Windows Development Tool and Best Testing/Debugging Software categories, marking the second consecutive year VMware Workstation won both awards.

“Recognition from peers in the industry is an honor and is the ultimate ‘seal of approval’ for the products that won,” said Kim Paulsen, group publisher at Windows IT Pro. “The third-annual Windows IT Pro Readers’ Choice Awards were started as a way for readers to choose and recommend the best technology products in the industry. The awards program gives readers the opportunity to voice their opinions and for leading technology companies to receive the recognition they deserve.”

Readers were asked to vote on their product preferences in 16 broad technology categories. More than 2000 readers chose the best among more than 700 products and services.

“Few people know more about the best values in Windows technology products and services than Windows IT Pro readers — the people who actually do the buying on behalf of their organizations. By voting for the most outstanding products, IT professionals have rewarded excellence in the Windows technology market,” said Karen Forster, editorial director at Windows IT Pro.

“We’re honored that VMware VirtualCenter and VMware Workstation have been recognized as best-in-class by the readers of Windows IT Pro Magazine,” said Michael Mullany, vice president of marketing at VMware. “These awards underscore the value of our virtual infrastructure products and validate the choice made by thousands of customers who have already adopted VMware virtual infrastructure as a core IT strategy. As we look ahead, we remain committed to continuing to bring useful and innovative technology to market.”

“Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 is a powerful solution for corporate IT organisations seeking to increase the efficiency of their processing infrastructure and to more flexibly respond to the shifting demands of the business,” said Juliette Sultan, senior vice-president of product marketing at CA.

“By delivering same-day support, CA is enabling our mutual customers to immediately manage their new on-demand environments, protect the data in those environments with unprecedented efficiency, and maintain the highest levels of information security – without having to increase staff workloads or headcount.”

CA’s Unicenter, BrightStor and eTrust solutions automate and streamline management of complex virtual computing environments by leveraging Microsoft Virtual Server 2005’s sophisticated native resource administration mechanisms.

– CA’s Unicenter Network and Systems Management (Unicenter NSM) can now monitor virtual machines running on Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 to ensure their availability. In addition, Unicenter NSM Systems Performance Option now offers diagnostics and tools to optimise server performance. The Unicenter solutions enable Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 to be managed in the same way as physical enterprise computing resources. This common management is essential for customers as they transition over time from traditional to on-demand architectures.

– BrightStor ARCserve Backup streamlines protection of Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 environments by allowing applications residing on different servers in the virtual server environment to be backed up in a simple and easy-to-use manner.