Licensing costs

Because of the white-hot competitive landscape, Microsoft recently slashed the prices of both editions of its existing version of Virtual Server. In December 2005, the company cut $800 off the price of the Enterprise edition -- down from $999 to $199 -- while dropping the price of the Standard edition from a rather expensive $499 to an eminently affordable $99.

It also recently announced its client virtualization software, Virtual PC, would be given away for free via its Web site, a move made in response to VMware offering its Workstation product gratis as well. VMware also offers its Server product on a complimentary basis as well, although its heavy-duty ESX Server remains a pay-for product. The bottom line: enterprise virtualization, at least from Microsoft, has gotten far more affordable over the last nine months.

All in all, the first service pack for Virtual Server 2005 R2 brings the product more in line with current hardware offerings, improves its integration with Active Directory, makes it easier to manage large farms of VMs and their associated virtual drives, and generally improves the value of the product. A worthy service pack effort, and one you should begin testing now, whether Virtual Server is currently on your radar or you're just getting interested in what virtualization can do for you.

For more information: