Parallels targets Apple's Xserve

Stephen Withers
Friday, 15 June 2007 12:32

Business IT - Technology

Parallels has shown off an alpha version of Parallels Server for Mac, its virtualisation software intended for Apple's Xserve servers.

Parallels Server would allow Xserves to run software such as Exchange Server under Windows alongside Mac OS X applications.

According to Parallels' chief evangelist Benjamin Rudolph, the product will support operating systems including Windows Server 2003 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and will feature virtual symmetrical multiprocessing.

Parallels is drawing on parent company SWsoft's existing virtualisation management tools, allowing Parallels Server and SWsoft Virtuozzo virtual servers to be controlled from a single console.

Where Parallels Server runs other operating systems 'inside' Mac OS X Server, Virtuozzo is a 'true' virtualisation system that runs multiple operating systems in separate virtual machines within a physical server.

In an event coinciding with Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, Parallels demonstrated the Server for Mac alpha running FreeBSD 5, Solaris 10, Suse Enterprise Linux, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 in virtual machines.

Parallels proposes to provide an open API to allow other management tools to control Parallels Server for Mac, as well as open-sourcing some in-house server management tools that aren't tied specifically to Parallels Server.