* Virtual Iron extends its support of open source
Virtual Iron is branching out with the announcement that it will manage the open source virtual machine monitor.
The company, one of Network World’s 10 Hot Start-ups to Watch http://www.networkworld.com/nw200/2005/042505startups-virtualiron.html?rl, will let its VFe Manager management platform manage Xen the open source virtual machine monitor for x86. VFe Manager also manages Virtual Iron’s VFe, is a software-based virtual computing environment that lets multiple independent physical servers be combined into a single scalable symmetric multiprocessing virtual computer http://www.networkworld.com/news/2005/012405virtualization.html?rl
VFe allows up to 10 operating systems to run concurrently on a physical processor or a single operating system to span as many as 16 processors.
By allowing its VFe Manager to manage Xen environments, Virtual Iron is expanding its capabilities for an audience who will in all probability run Xen alongside Virtual Iron’s product.
The Xen virtual machine monitor management module will be included as a standard feature of the Virtual Iron management software. It will also allow users to migrate from Xen virtual servers to Virtual Iron.
Although Virtual Iron is mum on whether its software will be used to manage VMware or Microsoft Virtual Server environments, the company says that it is evaluating its options.
Virtual Iron’s VFe works on Intel x86 machines running either SuSE Linux or Red Hat http://www.networkworld.com/news/2005/0310suse.html?rl
Xen was developed at the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory in the U.K. It was commercialized by XenSource, which was founded by the creators of the Xen hypervisor to provide support and service for enterprises adopting virtualization technology.
