Avnet Technology Solutions has announced that it has expanded its distribution agreement with Microsoft Corporation to focus on the virtualization market. Under this agreement, Avnet will help Microsoft develop and build its U.S. channel for virtualization solutions targeted to small- and medium-sized business (SMB) customers, including Microsoft's System Center products.

NextIO has announced the availability of the vCORE Express 2070Q appliance. The newest addition to the vCORE Express product line, the 2070Q computing solution is designed specifically to complement any Microsoft desktop virtualization strategy and to deliver a rich media desktop experience without sacrificing CPU performance.

NComputing has announced technology integration between NComputing vSpace virtualization software and desktop devices with Microsoft Windows Multipoint Server (WMS) 2011 multiuser operating system. This integration extends the benefits of WMS 2011 low cost, high performance networking and rich managementfeatures from the server through to the desktop endpoint to provide a complete, simple and seamless end-to-end desktop virtualization deployment.

Stromasys S.A. has announce that its CHARON line of cross platform virtualisation products has received the VMware Ready logo. The software virtualises Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) PDP-11, VAX systems, and AlphaServers. VMware has now confirmed that Charon virtual servers are supported on virtual machines in the VMware ESXi environment.

Wyse Technology, this week is previewing the first high-performance software based zero client with Microsoft's new RemoteFX technology, expected to further accelerate adoption of virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) and cloud computing on Microsoft virtualization platforms.

Wyse Technology, the global leader in cloud client computing, today featured its support for RDP 7.1 with Microsoft RemoteFX at Microsoft Tech Ed Europe 2010. RemoteFX from Microsoft enhances the remote desktop experience for users that connect to virtual and session-based desktops and applications over a network. With RemoteFX, users will be able to leverage server resources for high fidelity graphics and audio on their virtual workspace from a broad range of client devices including very simple, low-cost thin client devices.

Citrix Systems announced today that its popular Citrix NetScaler VPX virtual appliance will add extensive support for business-critical Microsoft datacenter and infrastructure solutions, including Microsoft(R) Hyper-V(TM), Microsoft System Center and key Microsoft enterprise applications like SharePoint 2010 and Exchange Server 2010. As a result, Microsoft datacenter administrators will now be able to apply all the same NetScaler acceleration, load balancing and security features that power many of the world's largest datacenters, as a native Hyper-V workload from directly within System Center -- with no networking knowledge or configuration required.

More than a year ago I wrote why I think Small and medium-size business (SMB) are not adapting virtualization, like the big spending organizations. Among the reasons I gave was about Microsoft not being in a position to offer a mature and cost effective solution and the current cost of the technology at the time. I am happy to say things have change since then and virtualization is now affordable for Small and medium-size business.

Microsoft released Linux Integration Components for Microsoft Hyper-V Virtualization. The download is a set of drivers that enable synthetic device support in supported Linux virtual machines under Hyper-V.

When installed in a supported Linux virtual machine running on Hyper-V, the Linux Integration Components provide.

Businesses with Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V) can now deploy Windows 7 Beta in their virtualization environment for testing. Microsoft has announced the release of an updated version of App-V 4.5 CU1 specific for Windows 7. Therefore, enterprise customers and Independent software providers with Microsoft Virtualization can implement windows 7 beta in their environment.