Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 released; company announces new services and training offerings to ease adoption.

Following the broad product, partner and customer announcements from its “Get Virtual Now” launch last month, Microsoft Corp.’s CEO Steve Ballmer today announced the final release and availability of Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 in front of a crowd of 700 IT professionals during a TechNet Server and Tools event keynote address in London. To further assist customers with the adoption and deployment of Microsoft virtualization solutions, Microsoft announced a new offering of specialized assessment and implementation services available from the Microsoft Services organization that help customers use server virtualization, and separate new training and certifications from Microsoft Learning for IT Professionals.

“Customers have been telling us that virtualization is a top priority, but they continue to face multiple barriers to adoption, such as costs, complex tools and limited certified virtualization professionals,” said Zane Adam, senior director of virtualization strategy at Microsoft. “In response, Microsoft is breaking down these barriers through new training programs and services, interoperability, centralized management tools, and a broad partner ecosystem built around the Windows hypervisor to help make virtualization ubiquitous. Microsoft’s new virtualization products will help customers get virtual and manage their virtual and physical assets across datacenters and desktops.”

Microsoft Customers Benefit From Advanced Management and Ease of Use

Saxo Bank, an investment bank headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark, brokers the trading of financial instruments to its customers. It has used Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V to help reduce costs and facilitate server consolidation, and Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 has provided Saxo Bank with a way to deploy virtualization on a much wider basis. A case study is available at http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/casestudy.aspx?casestudyid=4000002529.

“Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V and System Center have proved to be a powerful combination, enabling us to rapidly consolidate servers and move workloads between physical and virtual environments easily while maintaining high levels of availability,” said Tore Fribert, co-chief information officer of Saxo Bank. “We’re seeing real benefits including that we expect to experience reduced costs of up to 6.8 million kroner (DKK) per year in 2010 in areas such as power consumption and hardware expenditure, as well as improved flexibility in our overall operations and the ability to adapt to changing business demands.”

Del Monte Foods, a producer of food for consumers since 1916, expects that Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V and System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 can help the company achieve annual savings between $330,000 and $430,000 over the next several years. Savings will be achieved through server consolidation in the data center, which will result in lower hardware maintenance fees and reduced power and cooling costs. A case study is available at http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/casestudy.aspx?casestudyid=4000002618.

“Implementing Hyper-V and Virtual Machine Manager 2008 has brought Del Monte new levels of operational efficiency, enabling us to deliver improved results with less resources and helping us become a better partner with the overall business,” said Timothy Fraps, architecture analyst, Del Monte. “We are able to respond more rapidly to requests as we test the rollout of new servers to not only improve the productivity of our engineers, but also provide improved levels of end-user satisfaction.”