Let the games begin.

First thing this morning Microsoft said that its standalone Hyper-V Server 2008, the bare metal hypervisor meant to help it wrest leadership of the virtualization market from VMware, would be available today.

Anticipating Microsoft’s coming, VMware declared its standalone hypervisor a commodity a couple of months ago and – in a market broadening play – cut the $495-$1,090 price to free. Microsoft, which was only supposed to charge a nominal 28 bucks a head for its like-minded widgetry, followed suit a few weeks later.

Both companies hope to sell their fancier virtualization software on top of the bare metal hypervisors.

Hyper-V, as everybody must know by now, can be used to consolidate Windows or Linux workloads onto a single physical server or run client operating systems and applications in server-based virtual machines in the data center.

Microsoft’s System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008, the widgetry for configuring and deploying new virtual machines and centrally managing the virtualized infrastructure, is still in beta. Microsoft said this morning to expect final release of this key software, part of the company’s System Center suite, “by the end of the month.” On September 8 it promised it in “the next 30 days.”

It’s supposed to work with Hyper-V Server 2008, the bundled Windows Server 2009 Hyper-V, Virtual Server 2005 R2 or VMware’s prized Virtual Infrastructure 3.

Microsoft is also pushing specialized assessment and implementation services, and separate new training and certifications from Microsoft Learning for Microsoft Certified IT Professionals.

Hyper-V downloads will be available at www.microsoft.com/Hyper-VServer.