Microsoft will abandon Virtual Server when it provides a new hypervisor type of technology that will allow different versions of Windows and even other operating systems to run on the same server as part of the Longhorn server product. Virtual Server, which Microsoft aquired in 2003 when it bought Connectix, will be retired.
"Today, we have a product called Virtual Server that sits on top of Windows and provides virtualization capabilities," Microsoft SVP Bob Muglia, told ComputerWorld. "In the future, we're going to build the hypervisor and the virtualization stack into Windows. So while it's a whole new set of technologies, much, if not all, of what Virtual Server does today goes into the operating system. It becomes an operating system feature."
However, this new hypervisor will not immediately appear - it will materialise as an update to the Longhorn server OS some time in 2009.