Virtual Machine Manager 2008 Supports Hyper-V, VMware

System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 has been released. ISVs use Virtual Machine Manager to manage testing and customer support environments without the cost of separate computers for each type of environment.

Virtual Machine Manager is part of a suite of software that supports virtualization. It is designed for Windows Server 2008 and Microsoft Hyper-V Server yet supports VMware virtual environments.

System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 provides a management solution for the virtualized data center that helps enable centralized management of IT infrastructure, increased server utilization, and dynamic resource optimization across multiple virtualization platforms.

Virtual Machine Manager 2008 can manage both Microsoft and VMware virtual environments, and also manages the physical machines underlying the virtual ones. Among the important features of Virtual Machine Manager is one called Performance and Research Optimization, or PRO. It enables some automated management of both the hardware and software on a machine, provided the servers are "PRO-enabled."

Try it out for yourself for free-- download and test drive a fully featured evaluation version of VMM 2008 for 180 days. To learn more about Hyper-V, see Virtualization with Hyper-V: FAQ.