Virtualization platforms
Silver Award:
Virtuozzo 4.0
What Virtuozzo 4.0 -- an operating-system, or container, virtualization platform -- lacks in breadth, it makes up in performance, efficiency, scalability and density (SWsoft will be renamed Parallels in early 2008).
This special-purpose platform took second place because new and enhanced features help Virtuozzo improve on what the technology already did so well.
Unlike hypervisor-based forms of virtualization, Virtuozzo 4.0 creates a virtual environment on top of a single base operating system instance. This creates efficiency and strong performance; there's no duplicate OS wasting resources. This streamlined approach simplifies patching and uses fewer server resources. Further, its rock-solid stability and scalability make it a viable platform for virtualizing high-input/output applications, such as databases and email servers. So it is no surprise to find Virtuozzo and its open source cousin, OpenVZ, are the foundation of many large-scale hosting environments.
Our judges praised Virtuozzo 4.0's easy-to-use new GUI, virtual SCSI drive and virtual LAN support, as well as the significant expansion of Windows services support. With version 4.0, Virtuozzo's management tools can now display, organize and manage servers according to either physical or logical characteristics or servers can be grouped as a unit. Also lauded were enhancements to Virtuozzo's backup model, and enhanced high-availability functions, such as support for Red Hat clustering. A starter pack that includes a license for either single- or dual-CPU servers and up to four virtual environments, full management tools, and one year of Silver support lists for $1,198.