CIO —

Microsoft is working hard to gin up some excitement about its "virtualization launch" event on Sept. 8. Given that virtualization has been out of the paddock for quite a while and that Microsoft's own hypervisor is actually out on the market, it's hard to figure why Microsoft should be re-launching virtualization as a concept.

The lead news items at the Microsoft launch event will be Hyper-V (which apparently hasn't been announced enough, even though it's already shipping) and Virtual Machine Manager 2008, which is the key part still missing from Microsoft's virtualization puzzle.

Now, remember VMware's VMworld show, being held the following week, will be VMware's opportunity to be guaranteed a lot of attention from customers and the press for its refutation of Microsoft's various comparative ROI analyses and pitches on why Microsoft is a better virtualization supplier than Microsoft.

Given the way Microsoft sucks up attention when it really tries—and right now it's trying, if the amount of attention CIO.com writers are getting is any indication—people could very well be tired of virtualization coverage by the time VMware gets to the mike.

The question is whether Microsoft's content is worth the time and attention.

In general, the answer is probably yes. Microsoft's virtualization software still doesn't compare to VMware's, according to most of the experts I talk to, but it's much closer than a major Microsoft product could be expected to be at this stage of its development.

Even Microsoft can't hold center stage just talking about a hypervisor that's already been released, though. Even offering exclusive or semi-exclusive interviews with rarely accessible top Microsoft execs—which Microsoft is currently doing with both Kevin Turner and Bob Muglia—won't guarantee the amount of space needed to affect the potential impact of VMworld.

So Microsoft's expanding to take on the rest of the virtualization universe as well. The event materials it posted and distributed to the press say the company will roll out new products designed to build virtual infrastructures "from the data center to the desktop," that are manageable with "the same tools you're already using for your physical infrastructure."

Besides Hyper-V and Virtual Machine Manager 2008, Microsoft will also be talking about a desktop and application virtualization suite nicknamed App-V, and which veteran Microsoft watcher Mary Jo Foley of the All About Microsoft blog, reports is actually named Microsoft Desktop and Application Virtualization. Given the repetitive silliness of the nickname and the overlong banality of the proper one, I'm assuming both are genuine Microsoft tags.

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