While many firms are still in the initial stages of selecting VMware vs Virtual Server vs XenSource a new question has arisen, that of virtualisation directly on the motherboard.
Over the past few weeks there have been a number of developments in this area. First was Dell, with their announcement that they plan to work with an unnamed vendor to install a a hypervisor directly onto their motherboards (through either direct or add-on flash memory). The idea is that you can purchase a server with the hypervisor built in, including correct drivers for the hardware and integration with the normal Dell server management utilities.
Next, XenSource came out with the announcement that they are releasing "XenExpress OEM". This is essentially a cut down version of their hypervisor that can be installed by default on the server's hard drive or on flash memory directly on the motherboard. The standard free version will support two sockets with up to 4GB of RAM, and host up to four virtual machines. You can also upgrade to the commercial version for the standard price.
Finally, VMware have announced ESX Server 3i - a thin version of their hypervisor that companies such as Dell, HP and IBM have promised to build onto the motherboard.
The upshot is that from next year it is likely that a hypervisor will be an option on any servers a law firm purchases. This means that virtualisation will quite rapidly become the norm rather than an option, and firms will need to have some virtual management platform in place in the near future whether it be VMWare ESX, XenSource or whatever Microsoft put out to manage their "Viridian" hypervisor
More from the very clever folk at Arstechnica and The Register below:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/09/05/xensource_oem_edition_announced/
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070808-dell-virtualization-on-motherboards.html
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/08/07/dell_hypervisor_flash/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/09/10/vmware_esx_3i/
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