Today, when people talk about virtualization, more often than not, they are doing so by discussing VMware. But the server virtualization playing field has greatly expanded in the last year, and more people are starting to take notice of competing technologies such as those from Microsoft, Citrix, Virtual Iron and other Xen-based technologies. But there is another company out there, who up until last year, was th Today, when people talk about virtualization, more often than not, they are doing so by discussing VMware. But the server virtualization playing field has greatly expanded in the last year, and more people are starting to take notice of competing technologies such as those from Microsoft, Citrix, Virtual Iron and other Xen-based technologies. But there is another company out there, who up until last year, was thought of and treated as two separate virtualization companies – SWsoft and Parallels. Now, the company is publicly under one corporate umbrella and will soon change its moniker to Parallels as it embarks on a quest of virtualization dominance under its new “Optimized Computing” vision.Parallels is a global leader in virtualization and automation software. Its software is used by more than 700,000 customers in 125 countries and provides products for operating system virtualization, desktop virtualization and server control panels for Internet hosting solutions. Now, the company hopes to extend its virtualization market presence to include server virtualization. At the beginning of this month, the Virtualization Report talked about Parallels kicking off its first round of beta testing on its long awaited Parallels Server product. Now, the company is ready to expand their beta testing of the company’s hypervisor powered server virtualization solution. The company is describing their beta server virtualization product as achieving a number of technical firsts:Parallels Server is the first virtualization solution designed to run on Intel-based Apple hardware supporting Mac OS X Server, including Apple’s new Xserve and Mac Pro lines recently announced. This will allow Mac OS X Server administrators to run workloads such as SQL Server and Exchange Server at the same time as their Mac OS X Server applications. The product is also the first to enable running Mac OS X Server in a virtual machine to allow users to run in a sandbox environment and test patches, new software and experiment with new Apple hardware configurations. One interesting first is the way Parallels Server can be installed. During install time, users can choose between a Parallels lightweight hypervisor installation, where virtual machines run in tandem with a primary operating system, or a “bare-metal” installation, where virtual machines operate independently and don’t require a host operating system to function properly. Parallels is the first to offer users this type of flexibility to choose their implementation at the time of install.According to the company, Parallels Server is the first to offer experimental support for Intel second-generation virtualization technology, Intel Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (Intel VT-d). The company says that by adopting and supporting technologies like Intel VT-d, Parallels Server will not only deliver high levels of performance and reliability, but also allow users to directly assign hardware resources such as a second graphics or network card to a virtual machine.“Hundreds of thousands of customers are using Parallels virtualization software in their businesses and homes to get the most out of their Windows, Mac and Linux desktop computers and applications,” said Serguei Beloussov, CEO of SWsoft. “Launching the Parallels Server beta is a key milestone in delivering on our vision of ‘Optimized Computing’ for servers and desktops across heterogeneous platforms.” Key features found in the Parallels Server beta include: Run any combination of more than 50 different x86 and x64 guest operating in secure, high performing virtual machines, and have the option to run virtual machines in the headless mode via a “bare metal” hypervisor. Take advantage of Parallels Server’s industry first capability to simultaneously run multiple copies of Mac OS X Server, Windows Server and Linux on the same Xserve. Users running Parallels Server on Apple hardware also have the industry-first option to run Mac OS X Server in a virtual machine. Remote control of the virtual machines via the Parallels Management Console Support for up to 64Gb of RAM on the host computer Full support for x64 primary and guest OSes, as well as 2-way SMP in virtual machines. The final release version will support up to 4-way SMP Multi-user access to the same virtual machine Support for ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) in virtual machines Completely open, fully scriptable APIs for customized management Full support for Intel VT-x, and experimental support for Intel VT-d. The company is currently accepting registrations for new beta testers. For details about participating in the beta program, click here. Software Development