Microsoft recently announced that they will make its virtualization product Virtual Server 2005 available free of charge. This is probably a move to counter VMWare's offer with its free Server line.

Virtualization has gotten more in the media recently with participants like the Open Source Xen ( www.xensource.com ) and VMWare.

VMWare announced the free VMWare Server the 6th of February 2006. They write the following about their Server product at www.vmware.com : VMware Server is a robust yet easy to use product for users new to server virtualization technology. VMware Server enables companies to partition a physical server into multiple virtual machines, and to start experiencing the benefits of virtualization.

It is probably VMWare's move Microsoft now is trying to counter

The VMWare press release www.vmware.com includes:
"In 2005 virtualization decidedly moved in the mainstream, with an ever-increasing number of companies using server virtualization in production," said Gordon Haff, senior analyst, Illuminata. "VMware's strategic move to offer a free entry-level server virtualization product will help keep VMware out ahead of other x86 virtualization players - and accelerate the development of the market by exposing VMware virtual infrastructure to a much wider audience."

Virtualization is an interesting topic, and can be used in a variety of ways. How you can make use of it depends on yourself and your operations.