Parallels Server: Turn Your XServe into a Virtual Playground
SWsoft, soon to be renamed Parallels, has announced a beta version of the new Parallels Server, which will do for your server what Parallels Desktop does for your Mac — turn it into a multi-platform, run-anything machine.
Parallels Server is aimed at the enterprise market and will run on just about any x86-based hardware, including those shiny new XServes and Mac Pros that Apple recently unveiled.
If you’re running an XServe to offer OS X web hosting, but also want to offer Windows-based hosting or Linux-based hosting for example, Parallels Server could be your answer.
Perhaps even more interesting for those with an XServe environment is Parallels Server’s ability to virtualize Mac OS X Server. Although it might sound odd to virtualize the native OS, it gives admins a simple way to create a sandbox environment for testing updates and security patches.
Parallels Server can be run in two different modes. The first, known as “hypervisor,” runs in tandem with your native OS — basically just like Parallels desktop for Mac. The second option is to run what Parallel’s refers to as the “bare metal” of the server itself, meaning there is no host OS which presumably cuts down on the RAM overhead.
SWsoft claims Parallels Server can handle some 50 different guest operating systems, including most flavors of Linux and Windows, all running simultaneously on the same single piece of hardware. If you’d like to give it a try, head over to the Parallels’ site and sign up to be a beta tester.
It’s nearly MacWorld time which means it’s time for pundits to start trotting out the old “is Mac ready for the enterprise” saw again, and while those articles are about as fun as stabbing a fork in your eye, Parallels Server has certainly added a a whole range of new possibilities and enticements for putting some Macs in your enterprise setup.
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