With Containers, a user might take a container running a Web server and clone it across multiple machines for more throughput.

The Xen hypervisor technology due in the first half of next year will enable virtualization at the OS level. Among the perceived benefits include server consolidation, with users able to manage and use fewer servers. Improved utilization is enabled, Goguen said.

"The dirty little secret in the x64 world is these systems are only running at about 10 percent utilization," Goguen said.

The hypervisor would run under the control of Solaris, with OS capabilities such as DTrace, for analyzing OS and application behaviors, extended to it. Xen already is available with open source Solaris and will be commercially supported and available for commercial Solaris.

Sun with its Solaris enhancements is not looking to upstage Linux in the open source community but does seek to battle commercial distributions of Linux, Goguen said. Sun also is vying with other commercial Unix platforms such as IBM AIX and HP's HP-UX, Sun officials noted.