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Self-managing dynamic systems are becoming increasingly prevalent in the larger scale enterprises where resources are allocated dynamically through virtual machines. The deployment of dynamic systems not only saves on hardware costs as many virtual machines can run on a single physical box, it also cuts down the time spent by IT staff in maintaining the plethora of computers linked together in the network.

However, much of the shine is taken off the strategy if the software is priced per instance rather than as needed. Doubtless spurred on by rivals like IBM that have made

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a virtue of virtualisation through its Unix offerings, Microsoft has made wholesale changes to its pricing strategy.

Microsoft says that when it releases Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition, the licences will allow customers to run up to four virtual instances on one physical server for the price of one. Looking further ahead, the company says that licences for the Datacentre Edition of the 'Longhorn' version of the Windows Server due sometime in 2007 will allow an unlimited number of virtual instances on one physical server.

In addition, existing Windows Server System products that are licensed per processor, such as Microsoft SQL Server, BizTalk, and Internet Security & Acceleration Server, customers will be allowed to stack multiple instances on a machine by licensing for the number of virtual processors being used.

As a further incentive to encourage industry wide support for its Dynamic Systems Initiative Microsoft is offering its Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) format royalty free to third party developers. For its customers, Microsoft is promising that the VHD format will offer an upgrade path to future Windows virtualisation technologies.