Section 14.8. Microsoft Virtual ServerWatch Your Six

14.8. Microsoft Virtual Server…Watch Your Six

The early code for Microsoft's Virtual Server product was purchased from Connectix in 2003. The product is a quasi-equivalent to VMware's GSX Server. Some of the major similarities are that both products, GSX and Virtual Server, can run on Windows as the host operating system (although GSX can run on Red Hat Linux as well). Both support only one virtual CPU per virtual guest. Microsoft Virtual Server and VMware's GSX, as well as the virtual machines, run as processes within the host operating system.

Microsoft Virtual Server runs well enough, and we've had very good stability with the virtual servers we created on the Microsoft Virtual Server platform. Recent announcements made by top brass in Microsoft suggest that they are serious about competing in the virtual space. In the future, Microsoft plans to have its hypervisor built into the operating system. By coincidence, we ran into a Microsoft TAM in the Oakland Airport. We chatted, and the conversation turned towards Virtual Server. The TAM suggested that Microsoft would soon be catching up to VMware, which we don't doubt. How and in what time frame, however, we're still uncertain about, and the fellow didn't offer up much in the way of details. It'd be a good idea to watch the evolution of this technology…someday it may rule the world.

For more details on Microsoft Virtual Server, go to www.microsoft.com/win-dowsserversystem/virtualserver/default.mspx.