Software giant Microsoft has released its Hyper-V virtualization server after five years in development and several months arsing around.

Hyper-V has been posted on the company's Web site today and is free to anyone with a Windows Server 2008 user's license. It also will be available via automatic update starting July 8. It had been a game to guess when Microsoft was going to release Hyper V.  It was supposed to ship within 180 days of Windows Server 2008." Most thought this was wildly optimistic, and felt August was more likely.

The software will compete with the likes of VMware and Xen-based virtualisation systems. A lot is riding on Hyper-V working.  Many companies are wanting to run virtualization servers.  Analysts see the technology being the next most important thing to hit the industry.

Network World dug up some early adopters who seemed to think that the software is making their initial skepticism fade away. Robert McShinsky, Systems Engineer for Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, said that Hyper-V blew away Virtual Server. McShinsky said that Vole lacked the live migration features similar to what VMware has with VMotion

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