VKernel, an award-winning provider of capacity management products for virtualized data centers, today announced general availability of VKernel Chargeback 2.5 with Hyper-V. The latest version of VKernel's chargeback product was developed in collaboration with Microsoft to support private cloud computing environments based on Microsoft infrastructure. Chargeback 2.5 integrates with both Microsoft System Center Operations Manager and System Center Virtual Machine Manager Self Service Portal to help managers of private clouds easily charge for IT resources consumed or allocated at the departmental or divisional level.

Microsoft's self-service portal is a fully supported, partner-extensible solution built on top of Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V and System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008. IT professionals use the self-service portal to pool, allocate, and manage resources to offer infrastructure as a service and to deliver the foundation for a private cloud platform inside data centers.

To succeed with these private cloud platforms, chargeback or at least "show" back is a basic building block for success. VKernel's Chargeback 2.5 with Hyper-V enables cloud providers to quickly and easily deploy a chargeback solution for virtualized environments. By integrating with the self-service portal, Chargeback 2.5 will be able to retrieve deployment information about which customers have requested and deployed virtual machines. With its current integration to System Center Operation Center, Chargeback 2.5 can combine this deployment information with actual usage statistics of each Hyper-V instance. The result is an integrated view of resources allocated and consumed by self-service internal customer.

"Microsoft has been a great collaborator on this project," says Bryan Semple, Chief Marketing Officer, VKernel. "As cloud services gain traction, chargeback will be an increasingly important component of these initiatives. VKernel is ready to support the demands of these customers especially those deploying private cloud infrastructure with Microsoft."

"VKernel brings a strong set of charge-back capabilities to Microsoft customers," said Dai Vu Director of Solutions Marketing in the Windows Server and Cloud division at Microsoft Corp. "VKernel's charge-back expertise and ability to deliver immediate value to customers with their product suite meets our customer's requirements."

VKernel Chargeback 2.5 with support for Hyper-V is available for immediate download at http://www.vkernel.com/products/chargeback-hyper-v. Pricing starts at $299 per socket.