Microsoft's Hyper-V boosts interest in virtualisation

Businesses will increasingly turn to virtualisation technologies to get more out of their IT assets, according to the National Computing Centre.

With Microsoft entering the virtualisation fray with the Hyper-V application on its just-launched Windows Server 2008, businesses are taking more interest in the technology.

Speaking about virtualisation at the launch of Microsoft's latest server OS, Andrew Hopkirk, head of projects and programmes at the National Computing Centre (NCC), said: "Even the sceptics are paying attention because the potential is there to be had."

He cited an NCC strategy survey of 120 technology executives in which a quarter said they are already doing something practical regarding virtualisation.

Meanwhile, an NCC PMP survey found 48 percent of those surveyed are moving to a centralised IT environment — using virtualisation — while 34 percent have already done so.

But Hopkirk added: "It's very much early days for this set of products. It's up to the market to test these products Microsoft is launching."

Of Hyper-V, Microsoft's general manager of server and tools marketing, Larry Orecklin, said: "The feedback we have received so far has been tremendously positive."