In the last months the Microsoft virtualization strategy became more than aggressive.
Started with Connectix acquisition in 2003 (hardware virtualization), Microsoft slowly extented its investment with SoftGrid acquisition in 2006 (application virtualization) and Calista Technologies in early 2008 (presentation virtualization).
The investment is actually bigger than that, since the company also developed in-house technologies like new capabilities for its Terminal Services, a new management console for virtualization platforms, System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM), and a new hypervisor, Hyper-V, expected for the Q3 2008.
Microsoft is also building virtualization capabilities and support into a large part of its back-end servers: Operation Manager (SCOM), Configuration Manager (SCCM), Data Protection Manager (SCDPM) are all becoming virtualization-aware, while SQL Server and Windows Server both have virtualization-friendly licenses.
All these technologies are being developed with interoperability in mind, thanks to a series of agreements with Novell, with Citrix, with Sun and with Virtual Iron.