Unisys signs the Microsoft Server Virtualization Validation Program, why?

When Microsoft officially officially launched its new Server Virtualization Validation Program (SVVP) just two weeks ago, an unexpected vendor applied for it: Cisco.

The SVVP program is developed to extend the support that Microsoft offers on Windows Server and most back-end servers to those 3rd party hypervisors that pass validation.

As far as we can understand, there’s no reason to apply for this program without a hypervisor.
So, or Cisco is about to announce a hypervisor, or the SVVP has additional purposes that Microsoft didn’t detail.

Today another unexpected vendor appears on the SVVP applicants list: Unisys.

It’s not a secret that Unisys is heavily involved in virtualization, omnipresent in virtualization adoption projects across the globe, but as far as we know the company doesn’t offer (yet) a hypervisor.

As Unisys contributes to the Xen open source project, this may be the first step to launch a Xen-based solution.