Centrify, the place where Linux meets Active Directory, is pushing into - what else? - virtualization with the release Tuesday of Centrify Suite update 3. It supports heterogeneous virtualized data centers.

And Centrify ain't kidding when it says heterogeneous. The widgetry reportedly supports a dozen or more hypervisor platforms and upwards of 180 Unix and Linux operating systems running as guests on hypervisors or physical servers.

It's the result of the combined deployment of bare-metal hypervisors like VMware's or Citrix' coupled with the virtualization technology built into operating systems, a recipe for chaos with all those guest systems popping up everywhere and then moving thither and yon.

Not to worry, Centrify is now throwing the warm, secure embrace of Microsoft's Active Directory-based identity and access management around the mess by turning non-Microsoft systems or hypervisors into Active Directory clients using the same authentication and group policies that govern Windows systems. There's also granular access control through Centrify's patent-pending Zone technology.

Centrify supported VMware ESX in the past but now it's added Solaris xVM, AIX WPAR and z/Linux and guest operating systems such as Fedora 10, Mandriva 2009, Ubuntu 8, 10 and OpenSUSE 10.

The widgetry is licensed on a per-server basis starting at $350 a server.

Meanwhile, on the mainframe front, Centrify Suite 2008 is supporting Linux - or at least SUSE to start - as a guest on IBM's System z, which can in turn support hundreds or thousands of Linux servers.