Windows Server 2008 Packaging, Licensing, Pricing

The most frequently sold packages of Windows Server 2008 will include license for Microsoft’s new Hyper-V virtualization technology, and a new virtualization product will eventually make the technology available stand-alone. Although Windows Server 2008 will have the same editions as its predecessor, with similar differences among editions and comparable prices, modifications to licensing rules for lower-end editions make the products more competitive as virtualization and Web application platforms. The fact that other licensing details remain consistent with the past will be a welcome relief to customers who have struggled to understand recent major changes made to other server products.

(For an overview of the different editions, see the chart “Windows Server 2008 Edition Comparison“.)

Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008

The Standard, Enterprise, and Datacenter Editions of Windows Server 2008 will include license for Hyper-V (previously code-named Viridian), Microsoft’s new virtualization software layer. Often referred to as a hypervisor, Hyper-V runs directly on the hardware and is responsible for creating, removing, and managing virtual machines (VMs), each of which runs its own OS instance and applications. Hyper-V promises to deliver better performance and reliability than Virtual Server (Microsoft’s current virtualization technology), making the company’s offerings more viable in production systems and more competitive with hypervisors from VMware and Citrix (XenSource).