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Breaking News - Operating Systems & Middleware:

SWsoft Launches Virtuozzo 2.6 For Enterprises Worldwide

SWsoft announced the introduction of Virtuozzo 2.6 for enterprises and hosting providers worldwide. Virtuozzo 2.6 is a major new release that adds more than 50 additional features to an already robust feature set. A wide variety of enterprise scenarios can be addressed by this latest release of Virtuozzo and include server consolidation, utility computing and more.

"Virtuozzo is the only virtualization software that was designed and developed from the ground up for production environments," said Serguei Beloussov, CEO of SWsoft. "Virtuozzo 2.6 offers a complete and 'no compromise' solution to enterprises to help them make better use of their limited IT resources by decreasing cost and complexity while at the same time increasing flexibility and service levels. Enterprises can use Virtuozzo 2.6 for Linux/Unix now and simultaneously prepare for the eagerly anticipated Windows and Solaris releases in the coming months."

"IT organizations must continue to do more with less in response to changing business mandates. Accordingly, server virtualization is an increasingly important component within broader adaptive infrastructure initiatives," said Brian Richardson, senior program director at META Group, a provider of IT research, advisory services and strategic consulting. "Naturally, we expect the enterprise data center server virtualization market to attract new offerings such as Virtuozzo from SWsoft. Beyond price and degree of application isolation and management, users should also consider software licensing ramifications, and the level of resource management integration when evaluating alternatives."

The SWsoft approach focuses on virtualizing the operating system versus the hardware itself, resulting in dramatically low overhead and other distinct advantages.

In general, Virtuozzo has four essential capabilities for enterprises and hosting providers alike:

• Dynamic Partitioning -- Split a single physical server into hundreds of Virtual Private Servers (VSPs) with full dedicated server functionality -- root access, reboot, install any application, and change any file or IP settings.
• Resource Management -- Full isolation of VPSs and ability to share and specify max/min and other settings for system resources such as CPU, memory, disk and I/O.
• OS Virtualization -- Operating platforms become virtualized and enabling VPSs to be quickly moved between physical machines.
• Mass Management -- Automated updates and mass management of large groups of VPSs with fine grained tools and application templates.

The Virtuozzo 2.6 release specifically focuses on the following key themes:

• Complete -- More than 50 new features along with a complete set of tools needed for effective deployment and day-to-day management of production environments.
• No Compromise -- Single VPS may be created with the same performance level and functional characteristics as normal physical server without Virtuozzo installed. With near-to-zero performance overhead, there are no scalability limits -- a single VPS may span all CPUs and memory available on the physical box.
• Efficient -- Mass management tools allow hundreds of VPSs to be created, started, stopped, cloned, backed up and restored in seconds with low single-digit percentage overhead.
• Highly Available -- Transparent VPS migration let Virtuozzo VPSs be moved between physical servers with just a few seconds of "informational" downtime, and the "No-Downtime" VPS migration is currently in development and will be available in the next upcoming release.
• Interoperable -- Browser-based tools, XML management API, Virtuozzo Management Console, and command-line utilities are unified across platforms and will soon be available on Windows and Solaris platforms.
• Powerful Tools -- Complete set of GUI, Web-based and command-line tools, covering VPS creation, recovery, management (including mass management).
• High Performance -- Near zero virtualization overhead (less than 3 percent) allows Virtuozzo VPSs to have no performance and scalability reduction in comparison with a standalone server.
• Open -- Well documented tools and open management API allow Virtuozzo to integrate with existing management system, provisioning tools and leverage common programming tools.
• Broad Hardware Support -- Supports all major server hardware ranging from low-end to high-end SMP servers and most desktop platforms including network cards, SCSI and RAID adapters.
• Extremely Scalable -- High density offers up to five thousands VPSs on a single server and support for up to 16 CPUs and 64GB of memory enables the most demanding applications.
• Seamless Migration -- Legacy systems can be seamlessly upgraded with fewer, more powerful and secure machines without any modification of existing applications or retraining of personnel.
• Customer Proven -- Successfully tried and tested by thousands of deployments to enterprises and hosting providers, many of which securely running for more than a year of continuous uptime.