Microsoft gave further details Monday of a group of server and virtualization products due next year that will set the tone for how well the company will compete in the enterprise software market.

It announced pricing and licensing details for Windows Server 2008, its long-awaited server product due for release in February, and revealed that the commercial name for its virtualization product will be Hyper-V, formerly known as Viridian. The announcements came on the first day of IT Forum, its largest customer conference in Europe.

On its Web site, Microsoft is billing the official launch of Windows Server 2008, which will take place in Los Angeles on Feb. 27, as "the most important enterprise launch in company history." That launch will also showcase Visual Studio 2008, the company's application development tools, and SQL Server 2008, its database.

Windows Server 2008, formerly known as Longhorn, has been delayed several times, but since September some customers have been testing the release candidate, the term for when software is in its final stage of refinement before release.

The company is vowing no more delays: Microsoft is "absolutely on schedule" for the launch of Windows Server 2008 in February, said Andrew Lees, corporate vice president for server tools and marketing, on Friday.

Microsoft will release five versions of Windows Server in February, Lees said: Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter, Web Server and a version for Itanium-based systems.

Within six months of the Windows Server 2008 launch, it will also release Standard, Enterprise and Datacenter versions incorporating its Hyper-V virtualization software.

Virtualization enables one physical server to host several operating systems, which can be assigned to run certain applications. It means one physical server can be worked harder, often reducing the need for more server hardware, which in turn bring benefits such as lower power bills for data centers.

It's complicated technology, however, both for management and security, and only about 5 percent or less enterprises are now actively using virtualization. However, the market for virtualization products is expected to grow rapidly over the next few years, according to market analyst IDC.

Virtualization also means that enterprises can opt to run more copies of free OSes, such as Linux. "Virtualization poses a substantial risk to Microsoft, since the benefits of free alternatives, such as Linux OSes, Apache for Web serving and MySQL for database are enhanced when customers begin running multiple instances of them on each devices," according to a May report by analyst Directions on Microsoft.

Microsoft is trying to build excitement around its virtualization product to catch VMware, a subsidiary of EMC, which leads the market by a wide margin. Microsoft will try to best VMware by providing management tools that allow, for example, an administrator to quickly deploy another virtual server if one is backlogged with tasks, Lees said. Microsoft's virtualization tools will also allow a view into how the OSes and applications are performing and allow modifications, he said.

"We will provide a more comprehensive strategy around how to manage and utilize server deployment in terms of the server virtualization and management of that data center," Lees said.

Pricing for Windows Server 2008 will be no more than 1 percent higher than for Windows Server 2003, the company said. The following prices are for a one-off purchase of a perpetual license, although volume licensing customers may get cheaper deals:

• Windows Server 2008 Standard without Hyper-V: $971 (with five CALs)