VMware Set To Launch Update To GSX Server

As Microsoft delays the release of its highly anticipated Virtual Server 2004, VMware this week plans to launch a major upgrade of its GSX Server platform.

Both of the virtual software solutions, designed for departmental-level server consolidation plus test and software development purposes, are key solutions for migrations from Microsoft Windows NT 4.0, a legacy platform that represents roughly 20 percent of all Windows servers, according to research firm IDC.

Microsoft plans to cease all NT support by the year's end. Now vendors of server OS and virtualization software are scrambling to grab that lucrative business.

DRIVING NT MIGRATIONS>>VMWARE GSX Server 3.0 Due: February 2004 Price: $2,500 per two-CPU server >>MICROSOFT Virtual Server 2004 Beta: February 2004 Manufacturing date: Mid '04

Yet Microsoft is running late to the game. Last week, the Redmond, Wash.-based software vendor said its Virtual Server 2004 code, acquired from Connectix early last year, entered beta testing and is due to be released to manufacturing in mid-2004. It was initially promised by the end of 2003.

VMware, acquired by EMC in December, capitalized on Microsoft's delay by unveiling GSX Server 3.0. The product offers integration with VMware's high-end VirtualCenter platform and features better integration with Windows server administration. An adapter for Microsoft Operations Manager also is planned.

But Michael Mullany, vice president of marketing at VMware, Palo Alto, Calif., said that while some clients will use GSX Server for NT migrations, most will want to use it for server consolidation.

"Microsoft is entering the market to solve its NT forward-migration problem," Mullany said.

Still, VMware partners said they expect GSX to score big in the midmarket crowd using NT.

"We've seen GSX used widely to bridge the gap from legacy Windows applications and platforms,NT 4.0 specifically,to other Windows platforms," said Roger Gallego, corporate services sales director at Integration Technologies, Irvine, Calif. "The real gem of GSX 3.0 is that a number of the enterprise features of ESX are now available at an SMB budget."