The final version of Microsoft's hypervisor product will be made available as an add-on later in 2008.LOS ANGELESEnterprises are likely to hold off deploying Windows Server 2008
until the final hypervisor product, known as Hyper-V, is made available
sometime in the next six months, analysts say.
Microsoft, which will release the latest update to its server software at an event here Feb. 27 titled "Heroes happen {here}," has pushed back the release of
Hyper-V and cut some of the features originally planned.
While Windows Server 2008 will contain the beta bits for Hyper-V, the final product will be made
available as an add-on later in 2008. But that decision is likely to delay
enterprise adoptions of the new server.
"We do not expect to see enterprise deployments of Windows Server 2008
of any significance until the final version of Hyper-V is out," James
Staten, principal analyst at Forrester Research, told eWEEK.
But Microsoft has made early previews of the hypervisor available to most
enterprises that want them, so that they can start getting familiar with it and
determine whether it will meet their needs. "This is a trick they have
learned from the Linux market," Staten said.
The long development cycle for this new server product, which was five years
in the making, has also allowed Linux to encroach on Microsoft's base, Staten
said, adding that this is unlikely to significantly erode the opportunities for
Windows Server 2008.
But its release marks a milestone for Microsoft, as the software includes
lots of key technologies and services, many of which have been available to
clients in early candidate form for several months.
Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group, said he believes that
sharing the beta server code with enterprises has helped create excitement
around the software.
"IT shops seem eager to deploy the related solutions. Enterprise
customers don't get excited about much, but when they do, as they are now, it
certainly indicates their support for that offering," Enderle said.
While analyst Staten said he believes that ease of use is the biggest
advantage Windows Server 2008 has over its Linux and Unix competitors, "which is still something
the Linux and Unix worlds struggle with," it is still just too early to
tell if the product is ready to run enterprise mission-critical applications,
he said.
"At this point but we don't see anything in the product that should
cause IBM, HP or Sun any concern over their
Unix and mainframe offerings. But, that being said, Microsoft and Intel have
been slowly eating into traditional Unix markets by adding key availability,
diagnostics and reliability features," Staten said.
Windows Server 2008 made further strides in those areas, Staten said, bringing
integrated clustering, better diagnostics and a stronger operating system
foundation, which should yield reliability. "Windows' core should shrink
the attack footprint, while manageability has been improved with Microsoft
Operations Manager," Staten said.
But the software giant faces a challenge in capturing the new applications
and services that are being built on higher-level application
platforms that are operating-system independent.
"For a while, these types of applications, built in PHP, Ruby and other
languages and constructs, didn't run as well on Windows. With IIS7 and the
Windows Web Server Edition they do better, but they are coming from behind,
here, so it could be a real challenge," he said.
But Allison Watson, corporate vice president of Microsoft's worldwide
partner group, recently told eWEEK that there will be more than 1,200 shipping ISV applications for Visual Studio at
launch, more than 1,000 applications for SQL Server and 1,200 shipping
applications for the core Windows Server.
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