Cloud enablement leader, Parallels, today announced enhancements to its server virtualization product portfolio to enable its network of cloud services partners to compliment their virtualized services with new offerings based on their just-released hypervisor technology. Parallels currently supports more than one million cloud-based virtual environments in production through its existing Parallels Virtuozzo Containers technology and is building on this with the availability of Parallels Server 4 Bare Metal. The solution leverages the powerful hypervisor technology of Parallels' award-winning desktop virtualization products, augmented for complex server environments to enable a range of use scenarios, from development and testing in the cloud to consolidating multiple operating systems on a single server.

Parallels Server Bare Metal seamlessly integrates with Parallels Virtual Automation enabling cloud-providers to quickly and easily launch new services. The combined solution features full life-cycle service delivery management for virtualized services including provisioning, upgrades, monitoring, backup, customer self-service, and other components. Together, the Parallels virtualization solution gives public and private cloud providers the best time-to-market, lowest support and operations costs, and enables the widest range of virtualized offerings.

"Parallels has developed these products specifically to enable public and private cloud services," said Serguei Beloussov, CEO of Parallels. "Our unique understanding of the importance of automation tools and the innovative approach of Parallels Virtuozzo Containers has made us the leader in virtualized services in the cloud and we're building on that with the flexibility of hypervisor technology in Parallels Server Bare Metal, automated by Parallels Virtual Automation. Now, private and public cloud services providers can take the server virtualization approach that most suits their needs with minimal financial and time investment."

"We've been using Parallels' highly efficient Parallels Virtuozzo Containers software to support our VPS products for years," said Demian Sellfors, CEO of (mt) Media Temple. "We're excited about the Parallels Server Bare Metal launch based on the capabilities it will provide the development community and anyone seeking broad OS support."

"Being able to grow our cloud offerings to address new audiences that require expanded OS support or to the developer communities who need more capabilities, is a great direction for our business," said Patrick Pulvermueller, Managing Director of Host Europe GmbH. "We've had great success with Parallels Virtuozzo Containers and look forward to expanding our offerings with Parallels Server Bare Metal."

Parallels' updated server virtualization suite includes the following products:

Parallels Server 4 Bare Metal
Parallels Server Bare Metal is a hypervisor-based product that supports a broad range of operating systems and applications; and enables a wide range of usage scenarios from development and testing to elastic cloud computing. The product leverages Parallels' powerful hypervisor technology onto the server, offering a highly scalable architecture that supports up to 12 vCPUs, 64GB vRAM, 2TB vHDDs and 16 vNICs per virtual machine for intensive applications. In addition, Parallels has implemented several Intel specific processor capabilities, such as Intel® Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O, FlexPriority, Extended Page Tables and Virtual Processor Identification, to further enhance performance.

"Parallels' combined server virtualization solution enables public and private cloud services providers to improve IT service levels while compressing manpower and data center requirements," said Doug Fisher, vice president Intel Software and Services Group and general manager, System Software Division. "Intel has worked closely with Parallels for many years, and as a result, the hypervisor technology underpinning Parallels Server Bare Metal takes advantage of the latest advancements in Intel® Virtualization Technologies found on the Intel® Xeon® processor 5500 series."

For more information on the features of Parallels Server Bare Metal 4.5, please visit: http://www.parallels.com/spp/parallelsvirtualization/#ps

Parallels Virtuozzo Containers 4.5 for Windows
Parallels Virtuozzo Containers is the leading OS-virtualization solution, used in public and private clouds. The product dynamically partitions a single Windows or Linux operating system instance into fully isolated virtual environments or "containers" so dozens - or even hundreds - of workloads can safely run side-by-side on the same physical server. With Parallels Virtuozzo Containers 4.5 for Windows, Parallels has updated the product to offer Windows Server 2008 users the streamlined administration, near-native performance and high server consolidation ratios.

For more information on the enhancements of Parallels Virtuozzo Containers 4.5 for Windows, please visit: http://www.parallels.com/spp/parallelsvirtualization/#pvc

Parallels Virtual Automation 4.5 (formerly Parallels Infrastructure Manager)
Parallels Virtual Automation 4.5 is a comprehensive service automation and management tool that centralizes management of physical and virtual environments - including both containers and virtual machines - from a single unified console. Parallels Virtual Automation 4.5 is a full service delivery and lifecycle management tool allowing administrators to quickly and easily bring new nodes online, provision and de-provision virtual environments, apply templates, monitor resource utilization, and create workflows for self-service management. Through self-service and automation, administrators can lower costs and efficiently manage their infrastructure from anywhere. In addition, they can download or develop virtual appliances, virtual machines and templates, building a library to streamline the process of provisioning and configuring environments in the future.

For more information on the features of Parallels Virtual Automation 4.5, please visit: www.parallels.com/spp/parallelsvirtualization/#pva.

"Parallels Server Bare Metal expands the Parallels solution set to include stand-alone hypervisor capabilities, adding to the traditional Parallel Virtuozzo Containers technology that has been broadly used in the service provider market," says Gary Chen, research manager, enterprise virtualization software at IDC. "Being able to offer containers-based services as well as virtual machine-based services expands the number of use cases that service providers can offer to customers. Full virtual machine capability makes it possible to offer capabilities such as hosting of desktops operating systems and virtual consolidations of mixed operating systems environments."

For more information, box shots and screenshots of Parallels' server virtualization solutions please visit: www.parallels.com/spp/parallelsvirtualization/.