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    Microsoft Cuts Core Features From Viridian

    By
    Peter Galli
    -
    May 10, 2007
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      In an effort to meet its quality and shipping goals, Microsoft is cutting a number of core features from its upcoming Windows Server virtualization technology, code-named Viridian.

      As a result, Viridian will not include Live migration, hot-add resources such as storage, networking, memory and processor, while support will be limited to 16 cores or logical processors.

      Viridian is Microsofts new hypervisor-based virtualization technology available as part of Windows Server Longhorn.

      The Windows hypervisor is a thin software layer between the hardware and Windows Server Longhorn operating system, and allows multiple operating systems to run unmodified on a host computer at the same time. It provides partitioning functionality and is responsible for maintaining strong isolation between partitions.

      “Earlier this week, we had to come to grips with some universal truths about product development: that shipping is also a feature and that the quality bar, the time you have and the feature set are directly correlated. Resources are also not infinite and, even if you could add more, it does not help get more done faster,” Mike Neil, its general manager of virtualization strategy, said in a blog post May 10.

      /zimages/4/28571.gifClick here to read more about Microsofts Windows hypervisor technology.

      “So we had some really tough decisions to make. We adjusted the feature set of Windows Server virtualization so that we can deliver a compelling solution for core virtualization scenarios while holding true to desired timelines. Windows Server virtualization is a core operating system technology for the future, and we chose to focus on virtualization scenarios that meet the demands of the broad market—enterprise, large organizations and midmarket customers,” he said.

      The feature cuts come in spite of the fact that Microsoft pushed back the release of the first public beta for Viridian last month, from the first half of 2007 until the second half of the year so as to meet its internal goals for performance and scalability.

      At that time, Neil said that Viridian was being designed to scale across a far broader range of systems than the competition, and to scale up to 64 processors, “which Im proud to say is something no other vendors product supports,” he said.

      /zimages/4/28571.gifClick here to read more about the delay in the release of Viridian and Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1.

      He also noted then that the team still had “some work to do to have the beta meet the scale up bar we have set. Also, were tuning Windows Server virtualization to run demanding enterprise IT workloads, even I/O intensive workloads, so performance is very important and we still have some work to do here.”

      As Microsoft will be demonstrating Viridian at its annual WinHEC show in Los Angeles the week of May 14, Neil said that he “wanted to share this information this week with partners and customers so that no one is surprised at WinHEC when we demo all the other innovations in Windows Server virtualization.”

      Adding to the pressure on the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant is the fact that it is way behind its Linux competitors on the virtualization front, as Red Hat and Novells SUSE have both already integrated the Xen hypervisor technology into their server products.

      However, the company pointed out that the changes to Viridian will not impact the schedule for Windows Server Longhorn, which was released as a public beta on April 25 and remains on track for release to manufacturing in the second half of 2007. A public beta of Viridian will also be released at that time.

      “This beta will enable a broad group of customers and partners to test workloads and applications on a pre-production version of Windows Server virtualization with the final version of Windows Server Longhorn, Neil said.

      /zimages/4/28571.gifWill Longhorn Server and Vista SP1 ship together? Click here to read more.

      Microsoft also remained on track to release the final version of Viridian within 180 days of the release of Windows Server Longhorn, he said.

      /zimages/4/28571.gifCheck out eWEEK.coms for Microsoft and Windows news, views and analysis.

      Peter Galli
      Peter Galli has been a financial/technology reporter for 12 years at leading publications in South Africa, the UK and the US. He has been Investment Editor of South Africa's Business Day Newspaper, the sister publication of the Financial Times of London.He was also Group Financial Communications Manager for First National Bank, the second largest banking group in South Africa before moving on to become Executive News Editor of Business Report, the largest daily financial newspaper in South Africa, owned by the global Independent Newspapers group.He was responsible for a national reporting team of 20 based in four bureaus. He also edited and contributed to its weekly technology page, and launched a financial and technology radio service supplying daily news bulletins to the national broadcaster, the South African Broadcasting Corporation, which were then distributed to some 50 radio stations across the country.He was then transferred to San Francisco as Business Report's U.S. Correspondent to cover Silicon Valley, trade and finance between the US, Europe and emerging markets like South Africa. After serving that role for more than two years, he joined eWeek as a Senior Editor, covering software platforms in August 2000.He has comprehensively covered Microsoft and its Windows and .Net platforms, as well as the many legal challenges it has faced. He has also focused on Sun Microsystems and its Solaris operating environment, Java and Unix offerings. He covers developments in the open source community, particularly around the Linux kernel and the effects it will have on the enterprise.He has written extensively about new products for the Linux and Unix platforms, the development of open standards and critically looked at the potential Linux has to offer an alternative operating system and platform to Windows, .Net and Unix-based solutions like Solaris.His interviews with senior industry executives include Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, Linus Torvalds, the original developer of the Linux operating system, Sun CEO Scot McNealy, and Bill Zeitler, a senior vice president at IBM.For numerous examples of his writing you can search under his name at the eWEEK Website at www.eweek.com.

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