Microsoft charging into desktop and app virtualization, too

Revamping VECD

Microsoft also plans to work with Citrix to make sure that VMs created under Windows Server 2008 will interoperate with Citrix's XenDesktop connection broker and be manageable via Microsoft System Center.

Microsoft has also made significant changes to the license for its desktop virtualization, called Vista Enterprise Centralized Desktop (VECD).

For PCs, a VECD license now costs US$23 a year, down from US$78 a year. That excludes the cost of Software Assurance (SA).

For thin-client devices, the price of VECD goes down to US$110 a year from US$196 a year. This price includes SA.

Each VECD license lets a single PC or device run up to four Windows-based VMs at once. Microsoft is also now letting users use VECD with any version of Windows Vista, including Home Basic, as well as older versions of Windows such as XP.

Before, users were required to license a business version of Windows Vista. The change will "make VECD more open" to smaller companies, Boettcher said.

Finally, Microsoft is now openly saying that companies only need to buy as many licenses of VECD as it has concurrently virtualized PCs and devices. That is in contrast to Microsoft's earlier official stance that companies needed a VECD license for every single device or PC that is ever run under desktop or application virtualization, an unpopular stance that was hard to enforce.

In practical terms, that means a company that runs virtualized Windows desktops on all 1,000 of its PCs but only 500 at a given time only need to buy 500 VECD licenses.

Focusing on function, not (potential) piracy

One thing that won't change is that VECD and Microsoft Application Virtualization will remain available only to companies ponying up for a hefty SA license.

Another thing that won't change is Microsoft's official change on how many application licenses are required. In particular, a user running two instances of Office on his desktop that have been streamed down virtually from a server would still need two Office licenses.

However, Microsoft for now plans to take a relaxed view of the increased risk of piracy via application and desktop virtualization. For instance, users may be able to bypass Office's antipiracy technology, Office Genuine Advantage, by installing Office in a VM, validating it and then creating copies of that already validated VM, which it can then distribute near and far.

In server virtualization, Boettcher reiterated that Windows Server 2008 should be released to manufacturing by the end of March, with Hyper-V and Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) RTMing concurrently within six months of that.

Part of the System Center suite of management software, VMM will manage virtual machines created by Microsoft software, as well as those created by VMware or Citrix's Xen hypervisor, Orecklin said. How about Oracle's recently announced virtualization, which is based on Xen technology?

"No. Right now we're focused on where the market and customer demand is," Orecklin said.

Microsoft is holding a Virtualization Deployment Summit at its headquarters today with reps from more than 300 companies that have deployed Hyper-V or the virtualization part of Windows Server 2008.

Bob Muglia, senior vice president of Microsoft's Server and Tools Business, will deliver a keynote speech at 8 am PST. A webcast is available on Microsoft's site.