With the launch of Parallels Server Bare Metal, Parallels is expanding its value proposition in the crowded virtualization marketplace. But how is its approach different from other virtualization vendors such as Citrix, Microsoft and VMware?

First, Parallels offers a differentiated approach to virtualization that includes both hardware virtualization with Parallels Server Bare Metal and OS virtualization with Parallels Virtuozzo Containers. When the OS environment is heterogeneous, Parallels Server Bare Metal provides flexibility for hosting workloads with different operating systems on the same physical server. This approach is similar to Citrix XenServer, Microsoft Hyper-V, Oracle VM and VMware vSphere. However when the OS environment is homogeneous, Parallels provides capabilities to consolidate workloads with much lower virtualization overhead and much higher consolidation ratios. This is particularly useful for desktop virtualization.

Second, Parallels is clearly positioning itself for cloud enablement. Changes in messaging from "Automation and virtualization leader" to "Cloud enablement leader" clearly speak to that. And while other vendors are getting ready for cloud adoption, Parallels is already there with major market and mind share from service providers. Starting from its position of strength, Parallels can now go to all its partners using Parallels Virtuozzo Containers and help them expand their value proposition to customers with the addition of Parallels Server Bare Metal.

Finally, Parallels provides Parallels Virtual Automation for comprehensive management of both physical and virtual environments. Because of its strong expertise in enabling services providers, these capabilities push self-service and automation to levels that dramatically reduce the cost of implementing and managing virtual infrastructure.

In the last six years, leading vendors made significant investments to capitalize on opportunities presented by virtualization technologies:

• EMC acquired VMware in 2003 for $635 million
• Citrix acquired XenSource in 2007 for $500 million
• Red Hat acquired Qumranet in 2008 for $107 million
• Oracle acquired Virtual Iron in 2009 and is finalizing acquisition of Sun Microsystems

Now the big question is, who else wants to have a strong play in the virtualization and the cloud space?

Regardless of what happens, Lanamark Suite will enable the IT channel to design and deliver desktop and server virtualization solutions across all the leading virtualization platforms.

In a move that further solidifies its investment in virtualization and cloud computing, Cisco Systems announced an $11 million investment in Parallels through Almaz Capital Partners. The investment is noteworthy for several reasons:

• In 2007, Cisco purchased $150 million of VMware Class A common shares. Parallels is the second virtualization company to receive an investment from Cisco.
• Through its investment, Almaz Capital Partners acquired a 5% stake from its previous owners, Insight Venture Partners.
• Unlike VMware which is owned by EMC, Parallels may be a more viable acquisition for Cisco down the road, especially if the networking giant decides to make virtualization a core part of its Cisco Unified Computing System.
• Parallels is about to launch its bare-metal hypervisor with integrated management and automation.

Could Cisco be working with Parallels to incorporate virtualization, management and automation capabilities into the Cisco Unified Computing System? Is $11 million only the beginning of Cisco's investment in Parallels as it plans to invest $100 million in growth stage Russian software and IT companies over the next year?

Starting in 2007, Symantec has been quietly building a virtualization solutions portfolio through a string of acquisitions:

• January 2007: Altiris - application virtualization
• April 2008: AppStream - application virtualization
• August 2008: nSuite - connection broker

In Spring 2009, Symantec plans to release an integrated and enhanced suite of products from its acquisitions in the Symantec Endpoint Virtualization Suite which will compete with:

• Citrix XenDesktop and Citrix XenApp
• Microsoft MED-V and Microsoft App-V
• VMware View and VMware Thinstall

Despite its efforts, Symantec is missing a key component in its offering to take on Citrix, Microsoft and VMware: a virtualization platform with comprehensive management and automation capabilities. Citrix knew the importance of not solely relying on third-party virtualization platforms, acquiring XenSource in 2007. And although $500 million seems like a big investment (it is) strategically Citrix is well-positioned to offer a complete, integrated virtualization stack to enterprise customers with Citrix XenServer, Citrix XenDesktop and Citrix XenApp, accompanied by management applications offered in Citrix Essentials and from Citrix partners such as Marathon Technologies.

So what can Symantec do to bolster its virtualization offering? Will there be a window of opportunity for the software giant to offer customers an end-to-end solution from the desktop to the data center or will it continue to simply partner with Citrix, Microsoft and VMware?

Enter Parallels. While Parallels has taken its time to build a bare-metal hypervisor, the company knew that it could not bring a second rate product to market given the fierce competition. So instead of launching Parallels Server prematurely, Parallels continued to build and refine a virtualization offering that is technologically superior to anything currently available on the market:

• Hybrid OS and hypervisor virtualization solution with integrated management and automation
• Memory over-commit (currently available only in VMware ESX) for higher consolidation ratios
• Live migration for OS containers (no downtime) and virtual machines (short downtime) without shared storage requirement (comparable to VMotion and Storage VMotion from VMware)
• Data protection with live backups and snapshots

There is more...

• Comprehensive storage support for SAN, iSCSI and NAS
• Built on top of high-performance, scalable and proven Parallels Virtuozzo Containers kernel that is deployed on more than 50,000 servers world-wide
• P2V and V2V migration tools with support for converting OS containers to virtual machines
• It also looks like there may be a hardware abstraction layer (similar to VMware ESX) that would allow migrations across heterogeneous servers (not possible with Xen or Hyper-V)

To top this off, Parallels already has market-leading virtualization products for desktops: Parallels Workstation and Parallels Desktop for MAC (with over one million copies sold world-wide).

So why should Symantec (and other vendors such as Oracle) take notice? Because with a single acquisition, it would be possible to obtain superior virtualization technology for desktops and servers with integrated automation and management. Furthermore, while other virtualization vendors are talking about cloud computing, Parallels is probably best positioned to be a leader in this space because it already owns dominant mind and market share in the hosting market. In other words Parallels has leapfrogged all the other vendors.

Parallels may be late to the party with its bare-metal hypervisor but it is going to crash the party once it arrives, and certainly turn some heads. And with Parallels channel partners already using Lanamark Suite for delivering virtualization services to drive Parallels virtualization products to enterprise customers, Parallels will be unstoppable.

Response to Simon Crosby's blog post is here