Last week Parallels launched a new version of Parallels Server for Mac, version 4.0. The company said version 4 would increase the speed and reliability of virtual environments for small businesses and claimed it is the only virtualization solution to be optimized for Mac OS X server (more than likely because of that whole "niche" thing). While the company does offer a bare-metal or Type 1 hypervisor for the Mac, this version is considered more "old school" and is what is known as a Type 2 hypervisor, meaning it must be installed on and operate on top of a host operating system platform -- in this case, Mac OS X.
Some of the new features available with 4.0 include:
- Support for up to 12 virtual CPUs and 64GB of RAM per virtual machine
- Guest support for Microsoft Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, and Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server
- Mac OS X Snow Leopard host support
- Enhanced Parallels Tools to improve user experience and productivity
- Apple xSAN support
- Resource usage accounting
- Full and incremental backups
- Physical to virtual (P2V) and virtual to virtual (V2V) migration and conversion of virtual machines
The new product also adds integration with Parallels Virtual Automation to enable a single management system for a wide variety of virtual environments and hardware.
Available starting July 2, Parallels Server for Mac 4 pricing will start at $1,999. If you are an existing Parallels Server for Mac 3 customer with a maintenance contract, the upgrade is free. Those using version 3 without a maintenance contract will be offered a special limited offer for upgrading.
This article, "Parallels Server for Mac 4 is optimized for Mac OS X," was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Read more of David Marshall's Virtualization Report blog and follow the latest developments in virtualization at InfoWorld.com.
