The full version of Parallels Server for Mac is now available.
Parallels is now virtually slicing up the Apple Xserve.
The virtualization company -
formally SWsoft
- is releasing the full version of its Parallels Server for Mac June
17, which works with any of Apple's Intel-based hardware such as the
Xserve or the Mac Pro. The virtualization software also works with
Apple's OS X Leopard Server.
Parallels originally released the beta version of its virtualization software for
Apple in January
and the full version becomes available this week for a starting price
of $999, which allows users to run the software with an unlimited
amount of processing cores.
The company claims that uses can run up to 50 different guest
operating systems with the Server for Mac virtualization software,
including 32- and 64-bit versions of Windows Server, a variety of Linux
operating systems and the OS X Leopard Server.
With the virtualization hypervisor software, users can either
partition an Intel-based Xserve running the Mac OS into multiple
virtual machines. Later, the company will offer a version of the
software that runs the hypervisor directly - "bare metal" - on the
hardware itself.
The Xserve Alternative
Virtualization is becoming more and more a standard feature within enterprise systems with vendors such as
Hewlett-Packard and Dell offering
a hypervisor standard in many of their servers. The fact that Parallels
and VMware, the leader in x86 virtualization, are interested in
creating virtualization products specifically for Apple hardware might
mean that IT departments can turn to the Xserve as an alternative for
enterprise data centers,
especially with Apple using quad-core Intel processors and the
flexibility to run Linux, Windows and the Mac OS in virtual enviroments.
At the Macworld show in January, VMware also showed a yet unnamed
virtualization product for the Mac OS X Leopard and the Xserve. Both
companies also offer virtualization software for Apple's Mac. Vmware
has its
Fusion product, while Parallels offers its Desktop for Mac.
In addition to supporting the different operating systems, the
Server for Mac product offers support for two-way and four-way
symmetric multiprocessing, which should allow the hardware to support
heavy workloads even in a virtual environment. Parallels is also
supporting Intel's second-generation virtualization technology called
VT-d (virtualization Technology for Directed I/O) as well as up to 32GB
of physical RAM.
Parallels will also include its own Management Console that allows users to manage both virtual and physical servers remotely.
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