Besides a new interface that matches those of other System Center wares, Microsoft has equipped its latest beta version of VMM with the ability to track the health of virtual machines along with the physical server within Operations Manager.
"We make it so you can manage physical and virtual machines from the same console," says David Greschler, director of strategic virtualization at Microsoft. "We could always tell you if the virtual machine is up and running, but now we can leverage Operations Manager within Virtual Machine Manager."
VMM is just one step Microsoft has taken to up the ante against VMware. Longhorn will have embedded virtualization capabilities. And Microsoft plans to add a hypervisor for virtual machines in 2008. Code-named Veridian, that product will give Microsoft the means to compete with VMware's ESX -- something it can't do today.
Veridian's beta test has been delayed, Greschler acknowledges, though it's still on track for availability next year.
Meanwhile, Microsoft is still taking stabs at VMware, which in turn has plenty to say to Redmond. (See VMware Eyes Enterprise, Microsoft and VMware Slams Microsoft .) Besides offering physical-to-virtual machine conversion, the latest beta version of VMM provides a virtual-to-virtual conversion, which gives users the means to convert VMware virtual machines into Microsoft's "analogous VM vhd/vm representation."
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