By Tim Ferguson
Friday, September 12 2008 10:37 AM
URL: http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/software/0,39044164,62046050,00.htm

Sun Microsystems has launched an open source virtualization platform for servers under the banner xVM Server.

Although the product is free to download, support for the new application--including access to patches and training--costs US$500 per physical server per year.

xVM is built to work on Windows, Linux and Unix operating systems, including Sun's Solaris, and is also interoperable with VMWare, allowing workloads to be moved between the two platforms.

Keeping with the open source theme, Sun also launched the xVMServer.org yesterday, an online open source community to develop and improve the product.

Sun already offers the desktop virtualization system xVM VirtualBox and the virtual desktop consolidation application, Virtual Desktop Infrastructure.

The company has also opened its Executive Briefing Center in Linlithgow near Edinburgh in Scotland, where CIOs and IT directors can go to find out about Sun technology first hand.

The facility is only the second of its type for Sun, with the other at its Menlo Park campus in California.

Tim Ferguson of Silicon.com reported from London.