Internet Research Group (IRG) announced the release of its latest report on technology infrastructure, "Why Microsoft Virtualization is Different (and possibly better)."

With this summer's launch of Hyper-V, Microsoft began shipping its long awaited entry into the server virtualization market in competition with VMware's ESX, the market leader. This new research report compares Microsoft's quite distinct virtualization strategy to that of VMware as the two companies battle to win enterprise customers.

"As the old saying goes, if all you have is a hammer then everything is a nail," noted Peter Christy, co-founder of IRG. "VMware has built a very successful business around the hypervisor and virtual machine, and not surprisingly expresses its strategy that way. Microsoft has a much broader set of products, and sees virtualization just as one element in their effort to improve IT effectiveness. Is this all just marketing spin or is there real substance here?"

This report compares the business value focus of Microsoft and VMware as they continue to develop market opportunities for their virtualization products.

Vendors directly impacted by Microsoft's virtualization market entry include: Citrix, HP, IBM, EMC, Parallels, Virtual Iron and VMware. One step removed most IT participants are impacted by virtualization and this business competition.

The study is available now. A table of contents for this study can be found at www.irg-intl.com.