In the first major Windows Server announcement since its worldwide partner conference in July, Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT) offered a substantive look into its server virtualization and pricing strategy.

Monday at the TechEd IT Forum in Barcelona, Microsoft announced that its widely awaited server virtualization technology, previously code-named Viridian, will hereafter be known as Hyper-V.

Microsoft also unveiled plans to offer 8 different SKUs for Windows 2008, three of which will ship with Hyper V:

• Windows Server 2008 includes one virtual instance per license and sells for $999 (with 5 Client Access Licenses).
• Windows Server 2008 Enterprise includes four virtual instances per license and sells for $3,999 with 25 CALs.
• Windows Server 2008 Datacenter includes unlimited virtual instances per license and sells for $2,999 per processor.

Microsoft, which is also selling Hyper V as a $28 standalone offering for Linux and Unix machines, will ship a beta version of Hyper V along with Windows Server 2008.

Then, in the second half of next year Microsoft will push out the final version of Hyper V through Windows Update, said Andy Lees, corporate vice president for Microsoft's Server and Tools Marketing and Solutions group.

"Like any beta technology, we don't recommend using Hyper V in production until the final bits are released," said Lees.

Lees noted that Microsoft used the same approach with the release of clustering technology in SQL Server 2005. "Releasing a non-production copy in the SQL 2005 release worked out well because we were able to gather feedback, and then the final bits were of an even higher quality," Lees said.

While previous Microsoft announcements of new product versions and licensing have been somewhat confusing, the vendor has been pretty clear about its server virtualization intentions, says Rand Morimoto, president of Convergent Computing, an Oakland, Calif.-based Microsoft Gold partner.

Microsoft also announced the general availability of System Center Configuration Manager 2007, System Center Data Protection Manager 2007 and System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2007, all of which provide important management functions for server virtualization.

"From a management standpoint, it's important to have a top-to-bottom view of the entire virtualization infrastructure," said Lees.

Microsoft said that it's giving away Search Server 2008 Express in release candidate form to anyone who wants it, just by downloading directly from Microsoft's Web site here. The Express version is the sibling to the enterprise-strength version of Microsoft Search Server 2008, which the company debuted at an enterprise search conference in San Jose, Calif.

According to a press release issued by the company, Search Server 2008 Express packages up the enterprise search capabilities found in SharePoint Server 2007. With it come free connectors for searching among data and documents in EMC's Documentum and IBM's Filenet document management systems. Microsoft says that it's working with other partners to provide more connectors and federated search features that support the OpenSearch standard.

Jonathan Kauffman, general manager of Microsoft's Enterprise Search group, points to several other key features of the Express version in his blog: "relevancy tuning, security-trimmed search results and great out-of-the-box administration and reporting." What's also noteworthy, says Kauffman, is that Express also imposes no limits to the number of documents that can be indexed and searched.

Microsoft Search Server 2008 itself will be available to the general public in January, and only to Microsoft's volume licensing program customers; that version, according to the press release, adds enterprise deployment and scalability options.

To read more about Search Server 2008 and Search Server 2008 Express, click here. To read about partners developing federated search connectors that will work with Search Server, go here.

On Monday VMWare announced the release of VMware Fusion 1.1, an update to its "virtual machine" software for Intel-based Macs. A free update for registered users, VMware Fusion costs $79.99.

Fusion enables Intel-based Mac users to run other X86-based operating systems like Windows and Linux at the same time as they're running Mac OS X; the software operates the other operating systems as "virtual machines" running simultaneously with the host operating system.

The 1.1 update adds official support for Mac OS X v10.5 "Leopard," and further improves 3D graphics support, with experimental support for DirectX 9.0. Unity, which lets users minimize Windows applications to the Mac OS X Dock, switch between Mac and Windows apps using Exposi and more, has also been improved. Support has been added for Vista Boot Camp partitions as virtual machines, and the software has been localized for French, German and Japanese. Performance has been improved as well.

VMware has also introduced VMware Importer, a new beta application that lets Fusion users import virtual machines created using VMware Fusion's principal Mac rival, Parallels Desktop. You can download it from the "Drivers & Tools" tab on the VMware Fusion 1.1 download page.

The Windows Automatic Update brouhaha that arose last month and erupted again this week is not so much a problem with the program itself but perhaps a patch management and change control issue, observers say.

"This is really a cue, if you're an admin, to look at control over configurations of AU as well as user access rights," said Gil Kirkpatrick, chief technical officer of Phoenix, Ariz.-based NetPro, a Windows security and infrastructure consultancy,"It appears that if this is something that happened to specific users, it should have been audited beforehand or known beforehand."

The controversy has its roots in complaints from a recent discussion thread on AeroXperience.com -- a Windows enthusiast portal -- where it was revealed that some users had configured Windows Update to download but not install updates. These users discovered that their machines had rebooted overnight after installing updates automatically, causing some to lose critical application data. Further, the users reported that the Windows Update configuration had somehow reverted to the "install automatically" setting.

Microsoft this week denied any wrongdoing, stating in a blog entry that a detailed inspection of customer logs found that none of the patches doled out during this month's Patch Tuesday release"have made any changes to users' AU settings."

That wasn't the case last month, as Redmond conceded that it had silently updated the Windows Update apparatus in various OS versions without alerting customers.

As for this week's events, Microsoft suggested that components outside of Windows Update may be responsible for the changes, which is puzzling to some since Microsoft has just about corned the market in terms update programs for a Windows environment. In August, Microsoft's legal department even went so far as to contact independent vendors such as AutoPatcher.com and order them to stop developing mechanisms to help in updating Windows programs and applications.

"In this week's case it may very well be a foreign application that's causing this but to say Microsoft's absolutely not at fault would be simplistic," said Gerret Grajeck, founder and chief operating officer of Irvine, Calif.-based IT security firm Multi-Factor Authentication, Inc."The AU has a great impact about how programs on the OS are allowed to run and I'm concerned not just for my customers but about how my product might be affected by such unwanted updates."

Overall, servers running Windows in a complex processing environment might find it more expedient to use AU, but as Net Pro's Kirkpatrick points out, regardless of what Microsoft finds in subsequent investigations about AU, IT pros on the ground need to be thorough.

Grajek agreed, noting that enterprises usually take special precautions with update verifications during gestation periods for new programs and applications at the server level. He suggests that maybe it's time to go deeper and apply the same approach with OSes, hardware and workstations.

"When you look at companies that do regression testing at the server level, you kind of think that enterprises may need to look at how to do the same thing on the client side," Grajek said."This would put that extra assurance in place and prevent something like this from happening."

Trend Micro has released its 2008 Internet security suite, comprising three separate offerings aimed at various levels of Internet usage.

The AntiVirus plus AntiSpyware, and the PC-cillin Internet Security products are updated versions for 2008, with Internet Security Pro making its debut this year.

The Antivirus plus AntiSpyware version, costing $49.95, is the most basic offering and is aimed at casual Internet users. New features include proactive intrusion blocking capabilities to prevent changes to operating systems and critical software, an enhanced software history cleaner, and improved browser and cookie management.

At $99.95 the Internet Security product is a step up from the AntiVirus plus AntiSpyware edition, and according to David Peterson, Trend's consumer segment director for Australia and New Zealand, this version is about "getting back to what we were doing so well in the past".

Internet Security 2008 includes antivirus and spyware protection, a firewall, fraud defense against phishing scams, wireless and home network control and monitoring and parental controls. It is geared towards users who spend a considerable amount of time online, with a focus on protection from identity theft and personal or sensitive information theft.

New features include enhanced Web site behavior monitoring, the ability to detect and block image spam and customizable security warnings and security activity reports.

Ross Wilson, Trend Micro's managing director for consumer products and services, says that the days when viruses presented the greatest threat to Internet users are over.

"Viruses are an old hat," he explains.

"Threats have changed, malware is not what it used to be.... The very nature of the threat has changed. A lot of it now is driven by organized crime."

"Now it's about identity theft, and the theft of sensitive information in order to make money."

Trend's Internet Security Pro edition is subsequently targeted towards users who bank, shop, invest, use Wi-Fi and trade sensitive information online on a regular basis.

Internet Security Pro boasts all the features of the two lower versions, as well as several unique functions such as: keystroke encryption to prevent keystroke loggers from stealing data; the ability to validate the credibility of wireless hotspots and Wi-Fi networks; a remote file lock to secure folders and files in case of computer theft; and a system tuner to clean up the registry, temp files and startup behavior.

Peterson says the Pro product was originally conceived for high end users, but is now aimed at virtually anyone using the Internet to transmit sensitive data and information on a regular basis.

"Trend Micro 2008 products have been designed for people who extensively use their computers to conduct various activities online, whether they are at home or away."

The Pro edition costs $129.95, and all three versions protect up to three PCs for one year.