Parallels enhances virtualisation for Apple servers

Parallels has enhanced its bare metal offerings by launching its bare metal hypervisor for Apple XServe.

The company launched its bare metal hypervisor for other operating systems last autumn but the product didn't support Apple servers. Parallels had already launched a hypervisor for the Mac but as Jack Zubarev, Parallel's marketing and alliances president explained, the new product was another level higher. "That was hypervisor type 2, running within operating system, this is a Type 1 hypervisor installed straight on the hardware itself."

Zubarev said that the new hypervisor will allow companies who want to standardise on Apple gear to get rid of other platforms and will mean that cloud services provider will be able to offer Mac OS X services.

He added that another benefit of the new hypervisor, that the previous Mac offering didn't have , was improved management. "We've developed a set of management tools called Parallels Virtual Automation that offers users more functionality. This includes advanced troubleshooting and monitoring options as well as the use of a powerful dashboard that can manage the whole server farm."

He said that Apple had been very supportive of the initiative seeing it as a way to increase the spread of Apple servers within the enterprise market."The Xserve offers unbeatable performance, and Mac OS X Server is the world's easiest to use server operating system," said Ron Okamoto, Apple's vice president of Worldwide Developer Relations. "With ... Parallels' new virtualisation tools, there has never been a better time for entire organisations to switch to Macs."

Zubarev said that at the moment the company had a lead in this particular market. "We're the only company offering virtualisation for Apple servers, I don't expect this lead to last but we've got at least 12 months before the competition catches up with us."