Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 SP1 details emerge

A Microsoft employee posted a news on his blog about what is expected on upcoming Virtual Server 2005 Service Pack 1:


As with typical service packs from Microsoft, Virtual Server 2005 Service Pack 1 will be :

primarily a rollup of fixes we have seen since the product was released to improve performance and increase scalability.
In addition, with Service Pack 1:

– Virtual Server 2005 will have host support for Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 x64 Edition (note that this does not include IA64)
– provide PXE support
– qualify Windows XP SP2 and Windows 2003 SP1as a host and as a guest
– include the Virtual Disk Precompactor, a utility that is designed to “zero out” — that is, overwrite with zeros — any available blank space on a virtual hard disk

A public beta is slated for the end of first quarter 2005, with product release planned for the second half of calendar year 2005.

It seems a really poor features set. VMware could further enhance its GSX Server within this year letting Microsoft virtualization platform far behind…