More (better) Virtualization licensing changes
I heard a rumor that a change was coming, but I didn't know the details until today. Check out this article:
New Microsoft Licensing and Support Eases Path to Virtualization
http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/ticker/article.aspx?Feed=PR&Date=20080819&ID=9043163&Symbol=MSFT
I'm pleased to see that we're making it easier to support a virtualized environment.
I like the following statements:
"Microsoft recognizes this and is innovating its licensing policies, product support and a wide range of IT solutions to help customers get virtual now."
To highlight the recent innovations in virtualization, Microsoft also will begin a worldwide series of "Get Virtual Now" events this month that will showcase Microsoft virtualization products and partner solutions, reaching more than 250,000 IT professionals.
And I'll be interested to see how this plays out. I've seen too many places where virtualization makes too much sense. The thing I really like about this announcement is that it's not only a licensing / policy change, but we're standing behind it with our support organization as well.
To enable this support policy, Microsoft launched the Server Virtualization Validation Program in June 2008. The program is open to any software vendor to test and validate its virtualization software to run Windows Server 2008 and previous versions of Windows Server. To date, Cisco Systems Inc., Citrix Systems Inc., Novell Inc., Sun Microsystems Inc. and Virtual Iron Software Inc. are participating in the program
This to me means that we're finally serious about stepping into the virtualization arena end to end. While we've tried to support our virtualization products and solutions in a virtual environment, we've had too many exceptions. I feel that now we're ready to step up and make virtualization, and its' support, as mainstream as everything else. To me, this is long overdue.
If you want to check out some of our upcoming events around virtualization, check out https://www.getvirtualnow.com/main.aspx and it will get you pointed in the right direction. Right now they don't have any US events listed, but I expect that to change soon. I've always been passionate about Virtualization, it's made a huge impact on my ability to learn more of our technologies as well as squeeze every bit of processing power out of my few <smirk> physical machines.
My goal is to talk more about virtualization in the coming months. If there's anything specific you'd like me to talk about, please let me know.
Until next time!
Rob