Microsoft Corp released the latest version of its Windows operating system for powerful servers on Wednesday, thrusting itself into the red-hot market for virtualization technology that allows one computer to act like many machines. Windows Server 2008 marks Microsoft's first major challenge against VMware, the leader in virtualisation, by building the technology into its core operating system.
For the time being, Microsoft will ship Windows Server 2008 with a test version of its "Hyper-V" technology, which adds an extra layer of software that sits between the operating system and hardware, but it expects to add the full feature to the software within six months.
