Parallels making virtualization jump to servers

Parallels making virtualization jump to servers

A company whose virtualization software lets Windows programs run on Mac OS X will soon make the move to the more demanding server market.

By Stephen Shankland Staff Writer, CNET News.com -->
Published: September 13, 2007, 3:26 PM PDT

SAN FRANCISCO--Parallels, a subsidiary whose claim to fame is virtualization software that enables Mac OS X users to run Windows programs, is making the jump to the server.
The new Parallels Server software currently is in alpha testing, but will open to beta testers in four to six seeks, Benjamin Rudolph, communications director for Parallels, said Thursday at VMworld. Parallels, a subsidiary of virtualization company SWsoft, plans to ship the final product near the end of 2007 or in early 2008, he said.

But does the world need another hypervisor, the virtualization foundation that gives a single computer the ability to run multiple operating systems in separate compartments called virtual machines? The market already has VMware's dominant products as well as the open-source Xen competition from XenSource, Red Hat and Novell, and next year, Microsoft's Viridian software for Windows Server 2008.

Rudolph thinks so. The company will aim initially at small and medium-size companies that don't fool with virtualization today, and he hopes to expand from there. For those customers, he said, "Xen is just too complicated. VMware is just too much."

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