SWsoft has unveiled a Beta version of its long running operating system virtualization software - Virtuozzo 4.0. The company was demonstrating the new product at VMworld this past week as well as other products that the company has to offer. If you aren't familiar with SWsoft, their Virtuozzo product puts a different spin on the virtualization concept. Rather than hosting multiple virtual machines (each with the SWsoft has unveiled a Beta version of its long running operating system virtualization software – Virtuozzo 4.0. The company was demonstrating the new product at VMworld this past week as well as other products that the company has to offer.If you aren’t familiar with SWsoft, their Virtuozzo product puts a different spin on the virtualization concept. Rather than hosting multiple virtual machines (each with their own complete operating system) on a single server such as hardware virtualization solutions, SWsoft Virtuozzo dynamically partitions a single Linux or Windows operating system instance into highly efficient and scalable virtual environments called “containers”. And while this solution typically scales better than hardware virtualization, one of the biggest drawbacks is that the environment has to be homogeneous and must remain at the same patch or service pack level. But the technology solves many of the common performance, density, usability and infrastructure compatibility issues that affect traditional hardware virtualization solutions. Virtuozzo 4.0 contains a number of new features and focuses on the following: Management Tools – Server consolidation hardware benefits are simple to attain, but extending the benefit into administration (the largest IT cost component) is the real challenge. 4.0 is a major management tool release with completely new interfaces for both the GUI and browser-based tools. The new tools include the ability to create a virtual pool of resources and the Windows 2000 VZP2V which helps to upgrade a Windows 2000 server to Windows 2003 and converts it to a Virtuozzo virtual environment. Ease of Use – Ease of use is extremely important as IT departments adopt and deploy virtualization solutions. Virtuozzo doesn’t require administrators to learn a new operating system (Linux for Windows Administrators, or another distribution of modified Linux). Building on this straightforward architecture, the Virtuozzo installation is improved to an unprecedented level of ease and its tools provide a very easy intuitive experience for the administrators and virtual environment administrators. Business Continuity (Disaster Recovery/High Availability) – Virtualization is becoming a key enabling technology for providing efficient and cost-effective ways to keep data available and recover data. New 4.0 features include Windows Server 2003 and Red Hat clustering services, cross platform back-ups, online volume shadow copies, and online cloning to enable simple upgrade testing and deployment. Platform Parity – Platform parity ensures that all computing resources whether 32 or 64 bit (including Itanium), Windows or Linux, have the same levels of resource maximization, efficiency and management; all virtualized resources should be managed in the same manner. Virtuozzo bridges all of these platforms and moves even closer to platform parity within the differences and constraints of extremely different operating systems. Major enhancements include full support of many features that had previously been available only on either the Windows or Linux platform. Efficiency – 4.0 takes Virtuozzo’s architecture and technology to an even higher level of efficiency. New efficiencies include: a new flexible way of managing a Windows VE file footprint increments and decrements in near real-time, enabling a much better use of hard drive resources; improvements in the Virtuozzo file system to improve disk usage and speed common management tasks and an improved Windows architecture with higher efficiency and a better level of stability. Real Customer Feedback – Customer feedback is an underlying basis of every feature; either features have been suggested by customers in live production environments or they have been developed in accordance with the SWsoft vision for virtualization and have been tested with an experienced subsection of the customer base.“Virtuozzo 4.0 is a major step forward in our mission to provide customers with a solution that addresses multiple key barriers to service provider profitability – namely revenue per square foot, manageability and uptime,” said Serguei Beloussov, CEO of SWsoft. “Integration with our complete line of automation, billing, and management solutions through our OPEN FUSION initiative makes Virtuozzo the most complete solution for service providers.”Virtuozzo 4.0 is expected to be available for public Beta testing by the end of September with a GA date sometime later this year. You can sign up for the Beta program, here. Software Development