The recent news that VMware is to make its mid-range GSX Server product free of charge will be welcomed by almost everyone. The move follows a trend towards distributing software free of charge and then selling associated consultancy services and management tools to the users who are prepared to pay for them.

VMware's VirtualCenter management tool is obviously relevant here. VirtualCenter is currently a very useful add-on to a VMware server farm, but new features due later this year will make it something most IT managers won't want to live without.

For example, it will be able to automatically move virtual servers from one host to another to balance the CPU load on the hosts; and will be able to monitor and restart failed servers. Server operating systems don't crash very frequently, but such crashes are still one of the most common causes of downtime – at least in my experience. So the restart feature could prove very valuable.

VMware has renamed GSX Server as VMware Server and the removal of its fee was a predictable reaction to the fact that the market will soon be awash with free virtualisation tools. With the imminent introduction of hardware virtualisation support into Intel's mainstream Xeon server processors, and with AMD chips likely to catch up soon, it will become increasingly easy for competitors to produce their own virtual machine monitor (VMM).

Similarly, hardware virtualisation support transforms the Xen Source VMM from a tool for hosting multiple Linux systems into a viable platform for hosting both Linux and Windows systems.

For its part, Microsoft is expected to shove its Virtual Server (VS) capability into certain versions of its forthcoming Longhorn editions of Windows Server. VS should also receive a much-needed shot in the arm from the hardware virtualisation support from AMD and Intel. Although benchmark results comparing VS performance are rare, conversations at IT conferences indicate that without hardware assistance, Microsoft VS performs poorly compared to VMware offerings.

Incidentally, it seems that the producers of virtualisation tools have learned another trick from the past mistakes of software makers. Even at this early stage in the development of virtualisation tools, there is a high degree of interoperability between competing offerings. For example, VMware products can convert the files formats used by Microsoft

VS and can also use disk images made using third-party imaging tools such as those of Symantec LiveState Recovery. If only moving files between office applications was this easy.

Even those who have recently spent hard-won budgets on GSX Server should not gripe at VMware's decision to make it free – they can now sleep easier at night knowing they won't need to pay for further upgrades.