At their own TechEd IT Forum in Barcelona, Spain Microsoft finally gave a name to it’s upcoming Windows Server virtualization technology. They did also announce packaging plans for it.

Although it’s still set to ship 180 days after Windows Server 2008 ships, it will be included in the mainstream editions of the server once it’s released. All together there will be eight editions of Server 2008, with three of them including Hyper-V by default – Standard, Enterprise and Datacenter editions will be the chosen ones.

Microsoft will also release the same three editions that do not come with Hyper-V. There will also be two more editions that do not include it, Windows Web Server and Windows Server for Itanium-based Systems.

The moniker used for the plain version of Server 2008 that do not include Hyper-V is “without Hyper-V” as in Windows Server 2008 Standard without Hyper-V”.

As with most Microsoft releases, Hyper-V has had it’s features trimmed since it’s initial announcement. Some of these that have been cut are Live Migration, the ability to support more then 16 cores or four quad core processors.

And to add even more confusion to the mix we have to look at the pricing. Windows Server 2008 Standard with Hyper-V is priced at $999 with five CAL’s. While the Enterprise edition with Hyper-V will cost $3,999 with 25 CAL’s. Datacenter has been set to $2,999 per processor.

Read the original InternetNews article here.