Parallels, Inc.

Infobox Company
company_name = Parallels, Inc.
company_
company_type = Privately held company
key_people = Sergey Belousov, Chairman and CEO
num_employees = 900+ (as of May 2008)
foundation = 1999
location = flagicon|Switzerland Neuhausen am Rheinfall, Switzerland [ [http://www.parallels.com/en/contact/ Worldwide Operations HQ at http://www.parallels.com/en/contact] ]
industry = Computer software
products = [ [http://www.parallels.com/en/products/ http://www.parallels.com/en/products] ] Parallels Desktop for Mac Parallels Workstation Parallels Server Parallels Server for Mac Parallels Virtuozzo Containers Plesk HSPcomplete Compressor Server Compressor Workstation PEM Parallels Infrastructure Manager Parallels Automation Parallels Plesk Products
genre = Virtualization
homepage = [http://www.parallels.com/ parallels.com]

Parallels, Inc. is a privately-held virtualization technology company with offices all around the world (USA, Germany, UK, France, Japan, China, Russia and Ukraine). Parallels US offices are in Seattle, WA and Washington, D.C..The company currently has over 900 employees.

Parallels is best known for its MacIntel-based product Parallels Desktop for Mac, introduced one day after the announcement of Apple Inc.'s Boot Camp. Parallels uses Intel Core's virtualization technology to allow the virtual machine direct access to the host computer's processor. Parallels also offers Parallels Workstation, a virtualization product for use on Microsoft Windows or Linux and is planning to release Parallels Server in 2008. Parallels' major competitor is VMware.

Parallels, Inc. was an SWsoft company until January, 2008 [http://weblog.infoworld.com/virtualization/archives/2008/01/parallels_annou_5.html InfoWorld Virtualization Report | David Marshall | InfoWorld | Parallels Announces Virtuozzo Containers 4.0 | January 29, 2008 08:03 PM | By David Marshall ] ] , each company operated as a separate entity and maintained its own distinct branding. In December, 2007, Parallels' parent company SWsoft announced its plans to change its name to Parallels and ship both companies' products under the Parallels name. [ [http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/12/12/swsoft_parallels_name_change/ SWsoft to abandon itself and become Parallels | The Register ] ] The merger was formalized in January 2008. [ [http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/30/parallels_virtuozzo_containers_4point0/ SWsoft Parallels does Virtuozzo Containers 4.0 thing | The Register ] ]

Company History

* 2004 – SWsoft acquires Parallels, Inc. [ [http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2007/1/22/6709 Parallels acknowledges SWsoft ownership ] ]
* 2005 – Parallels, Inc. officially launches
** September 7 – Parallels launches beta version of Workstation for Windows and Linux 2.0 [ [http://www.parallels.com/en/news/id,7915 SWsoft: : ] ]
** December 8 - Parallels launches the completed version of Parallels Workstation for Windows and Linux 2.0 [http://www.parallels.com/en/news/id,8345]
* 2006 - Parallels announces itself as an official company
** April 5 – Apple Inc. launches Boot Camp [ [http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2006/apr/05bootcamp.html Apple Introduces Boot Camp ] ]
** April 6 – Parallels launches its first beta build of Parallels Desktop for Mac [http://www.parallels.com/en/news/id,8655]
** June 15 – Parallels officially launches Parallels Desktop for Mac [http://www.parallels.com/en/news/id,9121]
** July 18 – Parallels Desktop for Mac debuts in retail stores [http://www.parallels.com/en/news/id,9389]
**September - Parallels moves its corporate headquarters from Herndon, Virginia to Renton, Washington
* 2007
** Netsys lawsuit (see Parallels Desktop for Mac for details).
** June - Announces Parallels Server for Mac at WWDC
** April 26 - Announces Parallels Technology Network [ [http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9017923 Parallels Technology Network announced ] ]
* 2008
** January - SWsoft merges into Parallels to become one company under the Parallels branding.
** January 11 - Parallels acquires ModernGigabyte, LLC. [ [http://www.thewhir.com/marketwatch/032708_Parallels_Acquires_ModernGigabyte.cfm Web Host Industry News | Parallels Acquires ModernGigabyte ] ] [ [http://www.parallels.com/modernbill Parallels.com | Parallels Acquires ModernGigabyte ] ]
** June 17 - Parallels officially launches the first version of Parallels Server for Mac [ [http://weblog.infoworld.com/virtualization/archives/2008/06/parallels_annou_6.html Virtualization Report | David Marshall | InfoWorld | Parallels announces the first Mac server virtualization platform | June 18, 2008 08:14 AM | David Marshall ] ]

Products

Parallels software is based on a lightweight hypervisor architecture, which provides the guest operating system direct access to the computer's hardware. Each Parallels virtual machine functions like a real computer with its own processor, RAM, floppy and CD drives, and tools. Parallels released Parallels Workstation first and released Parallels Desktop for Mac second. When Parallels and SWsoft merged, Parallels rebranded much of SWsoft's products under the Parallels branding. Parallels then released Parallels Server for Mac.

Parallels Desktop for Mac

First released June 25, 2006, Parallels Desktop for Mac enables users to run Windows simultaneously with Mac OS X on their iMac, Mac mini, MacBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air or Mac Pro. It requires Mac OS X "Tiger" 10.4.6 or higher as the primary operating system. Parallels Desktop for Mac is a hardware emulation virtualization software that uses a lightweight hypervisor to give the guest OS access to the computer's hardware by mapping the host computer’s hardware resources directly to the virtual machine’s resources. It directly competes with VMware Fusion, both being able to run on an x86 Intel-powered Mac.

Parallels Workstation

First released December 8, 2005, Parallels Workstation enables users to create multiple, independent virtual machines on one PC. Workstation consists of a virtual machine suite for Intel x86-compatible computers (running Microsoft Windows or Linux), which allows the simultaneous creation and execution of multiple x86 virtual machines. Workstation supports hardware virtualization technologies such as Intel Virtualization Technology.

Parallels Server for Mac

First release June 17, 2008, Parallels Server for Mac is a hypervisor-based server virtualization software that enables IT managers to run multiple Windows, Linux and Mac OS X Server operating systems on a single Mac Xserve [ [http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9024859 Parallels demos Mac server virtualization ] ] . As of its release, it is currently the only server virtualization solution for the Mac OS X server platform and that allows users to virtualize Mac OS X Leopard Server.

Parallels Virtuozzo Containers

Parallels Virtuozzo Containers was first released under Parallels' former parent company SWsoft. The Linux version was released in 2001 while the Windows version was released in 2005. Parallels Virtuozzo Containers is an operating system-level virtualization product designed for large-scale homegenous server environments and data centers. Parallels Virtuozzo Containers is compatible with x86, x86-64 and IA-64 platforms.

See also

* Comparison of virtual machines for a list of related virtualization software products
* Virtual appliance
* Virtual machine
* Virtualization
* x86 virtualization
* Hypervisor
* Operating system-level virtualization

References

External links

* [http://www.parallels.com Parallels, Inc.]