SWsoft was a privately held server automation and

virtualization In computing, virtualization or virtualisation (sometimes abbreviated v12n, a numeronym) is the act of creating a virtual (rather than actual) version of something at the same abstraction level, including virtual computer hardware platforms, stor ...

software company and the parent company of Parallels. SWsoft developed software for running data centers, particularly for web-hosting services companies, application service providers, and managed service providers. SWsoft products included applications for operating system-level virtualization, which enables users to run multiple operating systems, including

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

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Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...

, and

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, on a single computer. The company was founded in 1997 and maintained its headquarters in Herndon, Virginia, with additional offices throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. Its research and development offices were located in

Moscow, Russia Moscow ( , American English, US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia. The city stands on t ...

, and it had sales offices in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

and

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

. In December 2007, SWsoft announced its plans to change its name to Parallels in 2008 and ship its products under the Parallels brand name.

Company history

* 1997 SWsoft founded * 2001 **

Virtuozzo Virtuozzo is a software company that develops virtualization and cloud management software for cloud computing providers, managed services providers and internet hosting service providers. The company’s software enables service providers to offe ...

released ** HSPcomplete released * 2003 ** SWsoft acquires automation firms Yippi-Yeah! E-Business GmbH (makers of Confixx) and Plesk Inc (makers of Confixx and

Plesk Plesk is a commercial web hosting and server data center automation software developed for Linux and Windows-based retail hosting service providers. It was developed by Plesk International GmbH, with headquarters in Toronto, Canada and Sch ...

) ** PEM datacenter released ** Open Fusion launched * 2004 ** Announces partnership with

Acronis Acronis International GmbH, simply referred to as Acronis, is a Swiss technology company with its corporate headquarters in Schaffhausen, Switzerland and global headquarters in Singapore. Acronis develops on-premises and cloud software with uniqu ...

7.0 released ** SiteBuilder beta released ** Acquires Parallels, Inc. but keeps this secret.Parallels acknowledges SWsoft ownership
/ref> * 2007 December 12: SWsoft announces that it will change its name to "Parallels" in 2008. * 2007 December: SWsoft acquires WebHostAutomation Ltd developers of HELM Control Panel. * January 2008 SWsoft officially becomes Parallels, Inc.

Uses

SWsoft’s virtualization software is predominantly used to automate

data center A data center (American English) or data centre (British English)See spelling differences. is a building, a dedicated space within a building, or a group of buildings used to house computer systems and associated components, such as telecommunic ...

and server management and to consolidate multiple servers onto one Windows- or Linux-based physical server. The company’s products are developed predominantly for web hosting companies, service providers, and corporations. Although the company’s software reportedly uses fewer system resources because it does not require each virtualized server to have an independent operating system, its overall flexibility is limited. For example, each virtualized Virtuozzo server must have the same version of the same operating system, and when running Linux, the operating systems' kernel must be modified from the standard version.SWsoft adds cheaper intro to virtualization , CNET News.com
/ref>

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Swsoft Software companies established in 1997 Virtualization software Software companies based in Virginia Privately held companies based in Virginia Software companies of the United States