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Service Pack Beta Released for Virtual Server

Microsoft on Wednesday released a beta version of the first service pack for Virtual Server 2005. The service pack delivers support for Windows Server 2003 x64 editions and performance improvements.

Meanwhile, Microsoft also plans to build virtualization technology into the Windows "Longhorn" operating system, is working with industry partners to support more third-party guest operating systems on Virtual Server 2005 SP1 and has a new Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 management pack for Virtual Server.

The final version of Virtual Server 2005 SP1 is supposed to be available by the end of the year.

The virtualization announcements came during Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's keynote at the Microsoft Management Summit in Las Vegas.

Virtualization capabilities in Windows Longhorn will be called hypervisor technology. It will be designed to provide native virtualization for both Windows and heterogeneous environments, according to a Microsoft statement. Hypervisor technology will support Intel Virtualization Technology and AMD's Pacifica specification. "The combination of these software and hardware technologies will open the door to widespread use of computer virtualization in the future," Microsoft said in a statement.

Microsoft bought its way into the virtualization market with the acquisition of desktop and server virtualization products from Connectix Corp. in February 2003. The company delivered its first full release of a server version of the Connectix Corp. technology, Virtual Server 2005, in mid-October.

The Virtual Server SP1 beta is available at https://beta.microsoft.com.

About the Author

Scott Bekker is editor in chief of Redmond Channel Partner magazine.

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