Microsoft is right on track of kicking Windows Vista Service Pack 1 virtualization up a notch, having announced the acquisition of Kidaro, a provider of virtualization solutions located in Silicon Valley. The focus is of course in driving Vista adoption, with an emphasis on SP1, by making virtual images hardware independent while at the same time turning Virtual PCs invisible to the end user.

According to Patrick O'Rourke, group manager, Windows Infrastructure, the Redmond company is planning to bundle Kidaro's Managed Workspace solution with its own Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack for Software Assurance. In this manner, Microsoft's enterprise customers will have access to a new desktop virtualization solution designed to enable the optimization of desktop infrastructures, through Kidaro's product which will provide management capabilities to Virtual PCs.

O'Rourke explained that Kidaro's virtualization technology is in fact built on Microsoft Virtual PC, and will be accessible to customers in the future as an integral part of the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack for Software Assurance. "The acquisition of Kidaro is an important component of our virtualization strategy, and it delivers a powerful new tool to help enterprise customers optimize their desktops," said Shanen Boettcher, general manager of Windows product management at Microsoft.

Kevin Brown, chief executive officer of Kidaro, welcomed the future addition to the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack for Software Assurance, as a way to deliver customers with virtual desktop capabilities, as well as management functionality for virtualization solution running within transparent virtual machine wrapper. Neither party disclosed the financial terms of the agreement, and only pointed to the fact that Kidaro's employees in Silicon Valley and in Israel will join Microsoft.

"Virtual PCs can help businesses address a number of challenges around application compatibility, mobility and business continuity. Kidaro's seamless user interface and management capabilities allow enterprises to more easily use and manage Virtual PCs. Incorporating Kidaro's innovative solutions into the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack further enables virtualization across the enterprise, and is another example of how we are helping customers keep up with the changing needs of their business," Boettcher added.

Kidaro's product will permit users of the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack to cut down the costs associated with desktop image management, meaning that virtual machines will no longer have any connections with the local hardware. Still, in the end, the new virtualization solutions are a means to an end for Microsoft, with the main focus on accelerating Windows Vista migrations.