Microsoft to develop virtualisation management tools

Microsoft is to augment its virtualisation platform to enable IT managers to manage other vendor environments, according to Microsoft chief operations officer Kevin Turner.

Speaking at the CeBIT trade show in Hanover on Tuesday, Turner said Microsoft would develop cross-platform virtualisation management tools, claiming Microsoft was the first to do so.

"Microsoft is uniquely cross platform," said Turner. "We will be the first to develop virtualisation technology to allow you to manage other vendors' virtualisation environments, and give the ability to manage cross platform."

Bill Hilf, Microsoft general manager for Windows Server, told ZDNet.co.uk that Microsoft will develop its System Center products, which focus on systems management, to manage other virtual environments and third-party hypervisors.

"Our System Center family will be able to manage other hypervisor technologies, and can manage other systems," said Hilf.

Virtualisation company VMware, which currently has the largest market share, said it currently did not manage, and had no plans to announce managing, third-party hypervisors.

"VMware has the broadest platform any virtualisation vendor supports: we support Microsoft, Linux, Solaris," said Wolfram Weber, VMware's manager of field systems engineers in Germany. "We manage virtualisation infrastructures - we do not manage other hypervisors."

Microsoft's Hyper-V virtualisation environment, still in beta, has drawn flak from VMware, which last week accused Microsoft of anti-competitive practices.

In a white paper launched last Wednesday, VMware claimed that with Hyper-V Microsoft was "forcing [its] specifications and APIs on the industry", and "trying to restrict customers' flexibility and freedom to choose virtualisation software".