The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Parallels slices and dices OS X with Server for Mac

VMware in the rear

Free whitepaper – Fundamental Principles of Air Conditioners for Information Technology

Parallels has stolen a march on VMware with the release of virtualization software for Intel-based servers running Apple's OS X Leopard operating system.

Claiming to have the world's first server virtualization solution for Intel-powered Apple systems, Parallels boasts that Server for Mac supports any Intel-based Apple hardware, including Xserve and Mac Pro.

Parallels will let Leopard Server run as a guest operating system in a virtual machine, with virtual support for two- and four-way Symmetric Multi-processing (SMP) systems. The software supports up to 50 different 32- and 64-bit guest operating systems, including Microsoft's Windows Server 2008.

The company, formerly called SWsoft, has taken advantage of last November's change in the end-user licensing agreement by Apple allowing its OS X server software to run legally in a virtualized environment.

Fusion from virtualization market leader VMware currently only supports OS X virtualization on the desktop. Fusion 2.0 is in the works for the server, though, with a beta already here

Free whitepaper – Guidelines for specification of data center power density

Don’t Miss

Data centre boxesAt what point do servers become HPC beasts?

Tech Panel El Reg barometer survey. Your input needed

Intel Xeon InsideThe state of the x86 server estate

Proper webcast Your peers are telling you

Large Hadron ColliderLarge Hadron Collider team flicks switch on Xeon grid

But hurry up with octo? We switch on tomorrow

ElephantOpen-sourcers promise cloud elephant won't trample your code

ApacheCon 09 Hadoop buffed for 2010 'completion'