In what it has described as a ‘holiday surprise’, Microsoft has announced that its hypervisor-based server virtualisation tool Hyper V is now available for download as part of a public beta test. It was not scheduled for public release until 2008.

The announcement comes just three days after virtualisation software leader VMware released the latest version ESX – a comparable server virtualisation product, prompting allegations that Microsoft is trying to steal that company’s thunder.

That should come as no surprise. In March 2007, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer described his company’s strategy regarding virtualisation: "Compete aggressively with VMware."

While Oracle and Sun Microsystems have both waded into the virtualisation arena in recent weeks, it is Hyper V that poses the most significant threat to VMware’s head start, thanks to the popularity of Microsoft’s existing server software.

But Microsoft has a lot more to lose. Some observers believe that by decoupling hardware resources from the software than runs on them, virtualisation technology threatens to undermine Microsoft’s near monopoly in the operating system market.

Indeed, some argue that the necessity of an operating system is now under question.

"Our entire industry is marching to the cadence of the operating system," VMware CEO Dianne Green said at the company user conference earlier in 2007. "In the future there will be no arbitrary reasons for purchasing software."

Further reading

Microsoft's virtual balancing act Virtualisation is arguably the hottest race in software. So why is Microsoft stuck on the pits?

Hypervision Virtualisation technology threatens to usurp the classic role of the operating system - and reshape the industry's competitive landscape in the process.

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