Vista, virtualization news dominate WinHEC

Microsoft pulled off what might be the software development world’s equivalent of horse racing’s exotic trifecta last week, releasing beta versions of three major products simultaneously at the its annual Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC).

After serial delays that have pushed back updates to Windows, Windows Server, and Microsoft Office, the software maker on Tuesday finally pushed Windows Vista client Beta 2 and the first beta releases of Office 2007 and the Windows Longhorn Server operating system out the door, while announcing plans in areas as diverse as virtualization and low-cost computing.

Releasing the products in tandem will allow customers to see how they can be used together, said Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates in a keynote address at the show.

For example, a local search for an Office 2007 document on a Windows Vista machine can find documents not only on that machine but also on all the Longhorn servers running on the network, according to a live demonstration by Mika Krammer, director for the Windows division at Microsoft.

Microsoft also used WinHEC to announce progress in its virtualization technology. The company said it was buying Softricity, an application virtualization vendor. Softricity’s products allow desktop applications to run in virtual containers, said Felicity McGourty, of Microsoft’s Windows Enterprise Management division.

A new hypervisor virtual platform management shim introduced at WinHEC will become an add-on to Longhorn after that platform is released. Hypervisor allows different operating systems, such as Windows and Linux, to run on one server.

Customers said they want to standardize their virtualization platform on one vendor’s technology, said Jeff Woolsey, program manager at Microsoft’s Windows division, who demonstrated Longhorn’s hypervisor technology during Gates’ keynote.

“They’re adding a whole new layer of flexibility to an all-Windows IT shop with these technologies,” said Steve Enright, senior network manager at a multibillion-dollar real estate management company.

Microsoft’s server virtualization and Office Sharepoint Server 2007 features will allow Enright to serve new user requests “without ever leaving the core platform,” and to use standard templates to do it quickly, Enright said.