I’d heard that something big was happening in Redmond today (well, maybe not in Redmond, but in Bellevue anyway…). I knew about the getVIRTUALnow events and I watched the opening session on the web but there had to be something else. Well, there is – Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.5 (App-V, formerly SoftGrid), which RTMed last week, will be part of the Microsoft Desktop Optimisation Pack (MDOP) R2, due for general availability within the coming weeks. System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 will be released within 30 days, as will Hyper-V Server (which will be a free download – not $28 as previously announced). And, as Scott Lowe reported earlier, live migration will be supported by Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008 R2.

Read more in the associated Microsoft press release.