Xensource next big potential challenge for Microsoft: Gartner

Gartner analysts said XenSource, a new software company formed to promote the
Xen hypervisor, is possibly Microsoft's greatest challenge. The hypervisor is
a thin layer of software that runs at the hardware level of a system. This thin
layer of open source software allows for operating systems to run on top of it,
thus fully emulating the system platform and thereby allowing multiple operating
environments to run in parallel on a single system.

"XenSource's technology threatens to loosen Microsoft's grip on the
PC market, and open up the PC for non-MS software that runs in conjunction with
Windows," said Martin Reynolds, Group VP and Gartner Fellow. "It's
like an operating system for operating systems, and it can run multiple
environments

simultaneously."

Hypervisors provide the necessary security and partitioning to run multiple
operating environments in parallel on a single system. "Hypervisors will
pervade all computing environments during the next five years, improving
security, flexibility, and manageability," Martin said. They are critical
to reducing hardware management costs, drawing maximum value from IT investments
and building massively scalable systems.

As companies try to deal with the increasing complexity of technology,
Gartner Inc has highlighted seven technology providers it calls 'Cool Vendors'
that are developing emerging technologies to address these challenges.
Anne-Marie Roussel, Research VP and 'Cool Vendors' Lead Gartner Analyst,
defines these technology providers as 'small companies that offer technologies
or products with three key characteristics: innovative - they must enable users
to do things they couldn't do before; impactful - they have or will have
business impact; and intriguing - they have caught Gartner's interest or
curiosity in approximately the past six months."

In the Gartner report 'Cool Vendors in Emerging Trends and Technologies,
2005,' analysts have identified three vendors that have developed sensor and
location technologies, while others have built systems for debugging software
and products for the life sciences market.

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