Stories about: SWsoft

When it comes to backing up virtual servers, IT administrators have a lot of choices. But increasingly, they're finding one method of backup isn't enough to satisfy all the demands of a virtual environment.

In our latest set of test of virtual machine management tools, we examined VM host-centric management, planning and accounting applications from PlateSpin and Virtugo Software, a VMware plug-in for Microsoft's Operations Manager application from nWorks, and a storage-area network management tool from Onaro (which Network Appliance has just acquired) that offers specialized insights into the virtualized world.

Parallels has released the finished version of its container-based server virtualization software, Parallels Virtuozzo Containers 4.0. It also launched a new data center management tool and officially changed its name from SWsoft to Parallels Monday.

Server virtualization feels unstoppable these days. The worldwide market for virtualization platform software grew 69% last year to US$1.1 billion, according to market research firm IDC, which predicts average annual growth of 27% through 2011, when global sales are expected to total US$3.5 billion.

Springboard Research has identified Citrix, Virtual Iron and SWSoft as prime candidates for acquisition in 2008 as part of its list of hot predictions for the new year.

SWsoft may be mainly unknown among the general population, but its software, at least among virtualization aficionados, is familiar stuff. Its Virtuozzo software is used on several hundred thousand servers, mostly by remote data centers and hosting providers, according to CEO Serguei Beloussov.

A rash of hypervisor virtualization announcements recently from Microsoft, Oracle and Sun signal the game is on to beat down leader VMware and jump in the corporate virtualization revolution.

Quest Software announced it had acquired Provision Networks, a maker of desktop virtualization software, to bolster its portfolio of heterogeneous virtualization-management tools.

Microsoft's decision last week to delay the end of Windows XP sales five months means users have just that much longer to jilt Vista and return to the older -- and some say more mature -- operating system. But even with XP's reprieve, few PCs come with anything but Vista. Even if you wanted to take advantage of the wider window of XP opportunity, you might not know where to start.

While the kernel 2.6.23 development cycle has not yet run its course, things are getting close enough to the end that it makes sense to start looking at the overall statistics for this release. As of this writing (shortly after 2.6.23-rc6 came out), just over 6,200 non-merge changesets had been added to the mainline kernel repository. These changesets came from 854 developers - a slightly smaller number than we saw for 2.6.22. Just over 350 of those developers contributed one single changeset.

The proliferation of VMs in today's datacenter has many IT professionals scratching their heads as to the true extent of virtualization's hold on day-to-day operations. Unfortunately, the complexity of virtualized environments, if left unchecked, could very well overwhelm those operations, hindering the enterprise's ability to make good on the promise of virtualization.