Microsoft is ready to bet the low costs associated with its upcoming virtualization solution as a key to success. Launched worldwide on February 27, 2008, following the RTM on February 4, Windows Server 2008 brings to the table the Hyper-V component, essentially a hypervisor that ships together with the latest iteration of server operating system. With Hyper-V, the Redmond company is going against VMware, a virtualization provider that for the past six years has had little to no competition on the market. Barbara Gordon, EMEA Vice President, Enterprise Sales, quoted by PC World, pointed to low prices as the deal breaker designed to give Microsoft's virtualization solution a competitive edge.

"What I hear is that users need to take out cost from their environments and virtualization is the credible approach. You have to ask if virtualization today is delivering cost effective value? And that it justifies the costs that are being charged? Price is a differentiator. Existing players are quite expensive. Microsoft can add value to this market with a server play and an application play," Gordon said.

There is little secret that Microsoft is comparing its offering with those of Vmware. At the VMworld conference in Cannes, France, at the end of February 2008, Enrico Gaetani, of the Western European Microsoft Server and Tools Group, made it clear who the company expected to compete with. "Microsoft is enabling companies to run dynamic, virtualised enterprises from the desktop to the datacentre, with a significantly lower cost impact to Vmware. And with the release of Hyper-V within 180 days of the Windows Server 2008 launch, our offering is getting even stronger," Gaetani promised.

The Microsoft Hyper-V hyper visor reached Beta stage at the end of 2007. The official launch of Windows Server 2008 was not synonymous with the final version of Hyper-V, as another six months have to pass counting from March 2008. Still, Gordon sees Hyper-V in an entirely new strategy compared to Vmware products.

"The time of individual point products is lessening. Our approach will be take a look at the environment, and make sure that the right virtualization functionality fits that environment. The fact is that it is the technologies that work well together and have good functionality that will let the user spend time adding value. So we've got a very broad offering," Gordon added.