Microsoft To Buy Connectix To Enter Server Consolidation Market

Microsoft plans to take a giant leap into the server consolidation space this week by announcing the acquisition of virtual server software company Connectix.

The software giant, which is expected to formally unveil the deal Thursday, will use the technology to allow customers to carve out multiple partitions on a single Intel-based server, allowing them to run multiple instances of a single operating system and multiple workloads.

"They see a market in server consolidation and they want a piece of it," said one source familiar with the deal.

Connectix, which is privately held and was founded in 1988, provides virtualization software for Windows-based computing. Last fall, it launched a product called Virtual Server that offers an enterprise-class virtualization solution for Windows-based servers. The technology has been in beta testing, and Microsoft is expected to productize it and ship it later this year after rigorous testing.

Virtual Server is a native Windows-based server application that enables customers to run a wide range of server operating systems including Windows, Linux, Unix, OS/2 and DOS, concurrently on a single physical server, within isolated virtual machines.

Connectix also makes Virtual PC for Windows, Virtual PC for Mac and Virtual PC for OS/2, which allows customers to run multiple operating systems on a PC.

The technology will be integrated into the Windows code, sources said.

High-end Intel servers from Unisys and NEC offer basic hardware partitions for Windows 2000 Datacenter Server, yet the adoption of smarter, virtual machine software will enhance those capabilities significantly, sources said.

CRN first wrote about Microsoft's efforts to integrate software partitioning in Windows server last spring.

"Microsoft has responded to a need customers have asked for," said one source also familiar with the deal. "It will provide server consolidation, software distribution and better development, and they are moving to address that."

Sources familiar with the effort said the acquisition of the technology will enable Microsoft to make its Windows Server more competitive with popular server consolidation platforms such as IBM's zSeries and high-end Unix machines. IBM's zSeries, which runs its own proprietary mainframe operating system while also allowing the deployment of thousands of Linux virtual machines running workloads on a single sever, is being adopted by Wall Street firms moving to Linux and other customers looking to maximize the full resources of their systems.

The Connectix technology will allow customers to run multiple workloads on a single PC and server, thus enabling the full utilization of all system resources on a Pentium-based PC and high-end servers,a difficult challenge and an obstacle to new PC and server purchases, sources said. It will also allow companies to make the migration process easier since they can run multiple instances of the Windows operating system on a single PC and various versions of Windows server software on Intel servers.

Finally, the technology, which is expected to be integrated into the Windows client and server family, will enable customers to deploy test applications on PCs and servers without interrupting the normal operation of existing applications.