Parallels

Video: Demo from Ben Rudolph, Director of Corporate Communications with Parallels (VMworld Europe 2008)

February 27, 2008 by Robin Wauters 3 Comments

The interview below is part of our Virtualization Video Series, a recurring theme we want to implement on Virtualization.com featuring interviews with key players from the industry, event reports, etc.

This interview was recorded at VMWorld Europe 2008 in Cannes, France, and features Ben Rudolph, Director of Corporate Communications at Parallels.

DivX HD 1280×720 3.5mbit/s: Play (pop-up)
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Flash versions: Blip (embedded below), Dailymotion, Myspace, Putfile, Revver, Sevenload, Vimeo, Yahoo, Youtube

Interviewer: Tarry Singh
Video blogger: Charbax

Techtrob: Virtualization in Linux – Four Software Programs Reviewed

February 25, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

Techtrob.com analyzed four software choices for linux driven virtualization platforms, now that Canonical completely supports the use of Parallels software in Ubuntu Linux. The article compares four virtualization products available for Ubuntu Linux: the free, open source x86 emulator Qemu; the closed-but-free versions of VirtualBox and VMware-Server, and the commercial Parallels Workstation.

Recommmended reading, includes screenshots for easy comparison!

Here’s their conclusion:

This article looked at four different products for virtualization in Linux, specifically Ubuntu Linux. The findings were interesting – the only product that requires the purchase of a licence for personal use, Parallels, actually performed the worst of the group. Qemu did well for a completely free-as-in-speech application, although VMware and VirtualBox blew the competition away in terms of performance.

Of these applications, VMware and VirtualBox definitely come out the clear winners. For individual use, where the ability to run a single Windows desktop inside of Linux is all that is needed, VirtualBox turns out to be my preference. It’s much smaller than VMware, which comes packed with extra features that aren’t necesary for the end-user. If your needs are different, however, you’ll probably want to give VMware a closer look. Overall, the maturaty and stability of all four applications was impressive enough to call virtualization on the Linux desktop “complete.”

Parallels And AXIGEN Launch Strategic Partnership

February 21, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

AXIGEN, a Romanian mail server vendor, and Parallels (former SWSoft), virtualization and automation software provider, yesterday announced the launch of a strategic technological partnership in which the companies will offer an integrated AXIGEN Mail Server and Parallels Virtuozzo Containers solution specifically for service providers offering virtualized hosting environments.

From the official press release:

The new AXIGEN-Parallels Virtuozzo Containers integration presents a high-end, flexible solution that enables Service Providers the ability to offer customized mail server solutions for customers via an easily deployable, low-maintenance SaaS model. Unlike traditional, generic hosting solutions, in which software must be installed and configured manually, the AXIGEN-Parallels Virtuozzo Containers solution allows Service Providers to offer customers a wide variety of pre-made Parallels Virtuozzo Containers, called templates, that are populated with optimized configurations of the AXIGEN mail server. Customers can choose the template that is right for their business, and have the solution deployed to them with only a few clicks.

“Parallels Virtuozzo Containers’ superior density and manageability, coupled with its ability to rapidly deploy software via pre-configured templates, make it an ideal choice for ISVs to deploy their software via a SaaS model,” said Serguei Beloussov, CEO of Parallels.”The partnership with AXIGEN is an excellent example of a forward-thinking application vendor harnessing the power of SaaS and of Parallels’ continued momentum with Service Providers and SaaS.”

“Given that the AXIGEN Mail server is a service provider oriented solution, we are confident the integrated AXIGEN-Parallels Virtuozzo Containers solution will better address the emerging requirements of this highly competitive environment,” said Oana Bornaz, CEO of AXIGEN. “Moreover, both Parallels and AXIGEN now benefit from an expanded customer base, a fact mutually beneficial to the development of our companies.”

ViUX Automates Hosting With Parallels / SWSoft

February 14, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

Server virtualization firm, Parallels/SWsoft, has partnered with software-as-a-service and technology solutions firm, ViUX Systems, to provide a complete hosting automation system for all of its clients, including resellers.

The new hosting system is based upon several modules – HSPComplete, Virtuozzo, Plesk and SiteBuilder – to fully automate all four levels of hosting that ViUX offers. Those four levels – Shared Hosting ervers , Virtual Private servers (VPS), Dynamic Dedicated servers (DDS) and Reseller Hosting servers (RHS) – use redundant, multi-homed, high-speed connections, within multiple geographically dispersed data centers.

Joe Murphy, Vice-President of ViUX said:

”Partnering with Parallels/SWSoft gives us a completely automated hosting infrastructure and allows us to offer virtualized hosting to bridge the gap for those customers that have outgrown the shared hosting environment but are not quite ready for a fully dedicated server. In addition, we can now offer automated deployment of hosted applications in a SaaS module, such as: SmarterMail, SmarterStats, DotNetNuke, Miva Merchant, osCommerce.”

To market their new hosting system, ViUX has also undertaken a complete revision of its website, providing an easier-to-use interface that complements the new capabilities and flexibility of its automated, virtualized hosting infrastructure. ViUX has also migrated most of its servers to a new data center in Iowa which allows the company to deploy new servers virtually on demand.

Mr. Murphy continued,

”Our partnership with Parallels/SWSoft also allows us to offer leased licenses for HSPcomplete, Virtuozzo, Plesk and other related products, in a license leasing module to other hosting providers and resellers. We have also formed a similar partnership with SmarterTools, which allows us to likewise offer leased licenses of: SmarterMail, SmarterStats, and SmarterTickets. This will allow smaller hosting providers or resellers to obtain these industry leading products from ViUX at low monthly fees and avoid the upfront cost of purchasing directly from the vendor.”

To Virtualize or not to Virtualize (Windows Vista),That’s The Question

January 22, 2008 by Robin Wauters 2 Comments

Just in case you haven’t heard, Microsoft flip-flopped its earlier decision not to allow users to run Vista Home Basic and Vista Home Premium as guest operating systems on a virtual machine. Mac users, and virtualization software vendors such as Parallels can rejoice over the news, which has been extensively covered all over the web , with the best commentary coming from:

CNET News , ZDNet blogs, Ars Technica and The Register .

Parallels Server Beta program launched

January 10, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

Leopard server virtual machines are now possible in the Parallels Server Open beta launch.

The Parallels Server Beta program, invites you to toss your proverbial hat into the ring and help them get the product ready for shipping. Parallels Server seems packed with lots of great stuff, like:

The ability to run more than 50 different x86 and x64 guest operating systems on any, Windows, Linux and Mac OS X Server. That’s right, this isn’t just a Mac product; its ready to go on just about any server, PC or Mac.

The option to run virtual machines either in lightweight hypervisor mode (similar in implementation to Desktop for Mac) or in the headless mode via a “bare metal” hypervisor. This second option is particularly interesting as it enables VMs to run in parallel (pun intended) without being dependent on a primary operating system

The ability to – for the first time EVER – run Mac OS X Leopard Server in a virtual machine! Yes, you heard right; if you’re a Mac user, you will be able to run Leopard Server in its own VM. Great for testing and development, but also important for Mac Server admins who want to maximize their Xserve hardware.

More information by Ben Rudolph at source.