Sun will release xVM in Q2 2008 as separate product, a virtualization management tool in the work as well

Quoting from IT Pro:

The Sun xVM hypervisor will be on general release by the second quarter next year, but will have two previews, the first by the end of this year and the second my May 2008. The system is already available in the Open Solaris community, but will be released as a separate commercial product from Sun.

The type-one hypervisor – which means it sits directly on the hardware – is based on technology developed by the Xen open source community, but has a Solaris-based kernel rather than a Linux one.

The xVM will run Linux, Windows or Solaris operating systems on any hardware, he said. Sun already has an agreement in place with Microsoft to ensure Windows works smoothly on the virtualisation system, that it is a “good guest”. The agreement will flip the other way when Microsoft announces its virtualisation products, to ensure Solaris is a “good guest,” too.

The xVM will also allow technology to be passed from the server to the operating system, so tools such as the ZFS file system, which is included on the hypervisor will be inherited by the OS.

Also in production as part of the virtualisation lineup is a set of management tools, called Ops Centre, which will be on general release from December 2007…

Read the whole article at the source.

The virtualization.info Virtualization Industry Roadmap has been updated accordingly.

Update: While IT Pro reports availability of Sun xVM in May 2008, IT Week declares it will be ready not earlier than June.