Sun has announced that its xVM Ops Center datacentre automation tool for managing cross-platform Linux and Solaris-based global IT infrastructures will be available on January 8, with pricing starting at $100 per managed server rising to $350, depending on what features customers select.

Three different packages are available - Starter, Standard and Enterprise, and Sun said that a $10,000 (USD) Satellite Server subscription was available which included on-site enterprise installation and hands-on training.

XVM is Sun's virtualisation and management platform, and includes Sun xVM Ops Center and Sun xVM Server, an enterprise-grade bare-metal hypervisor. Sun's xVM vice president Steve Wilson said that demanding service level agreements meant that, "Administrators need to manage increasing volumes of data, applications, and people on the network, as well as the rapid proliferation of servers and guest operating systems.”

XVM Ops Center functions include, infrastructure discovery and monitoring, hardware management and operating system provisioning, and patch and firmware updating, "from power up to production."

Underlining its open source credentials, Sun said that it would release the source code to the OpenxVM.org community under the GNU GPLv3, with the first chunk due on Dec 10.