Virtualisation Software .. ..

I know a lot of our partners recommend non-MS virtualisation software .. :-( Well this announcement might make you reconsider .. .. .. ..

  “As part of its broad strategy to help customers realize the benefits of virtualization and progress toward self-managing dynamic systems, Microsoft has released to manufacturing (RTM) Virtual Server 2005 R2, which will be available in volume licensing and retail the first week of December. Virtual Server 2005 R2 delivers improved performance, availability and scalability for server consolidation, legacy application migration, disaster recovery, and software testing and development. Microsoft will be offering Virtual Server R2 Standard Edition for $99 (U.S.) estimated retail price and Virtual Server R2 Enterprise Edition for $199 (U.S.) estimated retail price. This new pricing represents Microsoft’s commitment to making server virtualization more accessible to customers at the lowest price point.”

If you want more info then go here.

And remember that the way products are licensed when running within a VM environment has also changed – for more info on the licensing changes go here.