Virtualization helps Apple leverage Xserve's quad-core power
"Apple's selling into all sizes of business now," he said, "and I think it's mainly because of Mac OS X's ability to run Windows on the Mac. The flexibility of the Intel platform and the access to critical applications has opened the door [to the corporate market]. It makes sense to look at the server side, too."

Lee concurred. "We've been hearing from customers who would love to be able to run multiple instances of Mac OS X on Xserve as well as other operating systems, including Windows and Linux. Others want a simpler way to move [Mac] apps from one physical server to another. Virtualization lets them do that."

The requirement that all VMs running Mac OS X be hosted on a physical box built by Apple also points to a tweaked strategy. "The Xserve is a great piece of hardware," said Rudolph, "and virtualization of Mac OS X Server makes Apple's hardware a viable choice now to everyone who wants to run multiple instances on the same box. But if you thought you could run Mac OS X on a Dell, you're out of luck."

Lee, on the other hand, noted that the power of the Apple's quad-core Xserve hardware is largely wasted without virtualization because few applications take advantage of the multiple cores to run parallel processes for faster performance. "But virtualization parallelizes those apps that aren't meant to be parallelized," he said. Allowing multiple instances of Mac OS X on one Xserve box, however, makes the machine more attractive to Apple's corporate customers.

"This makes [Mac OS X] more flexible and users more open to virtualization," Lee said.

Parallels will focus on delivering a server-based VM that will run Mac OS X as well as other already-supported guest operating systems -- including various flavors of Windows and Linux -- targeting SMBs. "We want to do something that has the features they need but at the price they can afford," said Rudolph. "VMware has great technology, but for small business, it's prohibitively expensive." Parallels hasn't talked price for a server side VM product, but Rudolph said it would be higher than the desktop software's $80 price tag, but "in a similar pricing structure."

Lee declined to commit to any product or schedule, citing the need to reach out to customers for feedback.

Apple sells Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard in single-license editions that support up to 10 client machines for $499 and an unlimited number of clients for $999.

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