When virtualization is spoken about, most people automatically assume you are speaking about VMware. They are after all the world's largest virtualization software company. However, SWsoft might have something to say about that conversation. The company recently announced a number of new milestones reached this year, and dubbed itself the world's second-largest overall virtualization software company to those pe When virtualization is spoken about, most people automatically assume you are speaking about VMware. They are after all the world’s largest virtualization software company.However, SWsoft might have something to say about that conversation. The company recently announced a number of new milestones reached this year, and dubbed itself the world’s second-largest overall virtualization software company to those people who might otherwise not have known that information.So what exactly is the company up to? According to a recent article by The Inquirer, SWsoft is plotting a buying spree. The company’s CEO, Sergeui Beloussov, “disclosed that he is closing on ‘several’ acquisitions, one of which is likely to be announced early next week. This will be a company analogous to Opsware, the automation outfit that recently agreed to sell out to HP. Beloussov wouldn’t name the company but Israel’s The Marker is reporting the target as Sphera, a company that specialises in management tools for software-as-a-service firms.” If confirmed, the acquisition of Sphera makes sense. SWsoft has been talking about and promoting the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) market with their Plesk software and many of the company’s faithful customers are some of the larger hosting providers. The company also recently made headway towards creating a SaaS integration platform with the introduction of the Application Packaging Standard.To further its growth in the market, the company also has two major releases planned for this year: Virtuozzo v4, which the company previewed for folks at the LinuxWorld conference, and Parallels Server which runs bare-metal as well as on top of Windows, Linux or OS X server. In this crazy world of virtualization, SWsoft may not be the most vocal person in the room, but they are definitely one company to keep your eyes on. So while others are being acquired or going public, SWsoft is quietly building up a nice set of solutions and offerings to help address today’s datacenter concerns. Software Development