SWsoft was a
privately held
A privately held company (or simply a private company) is a company whose Stock, shares and related rights or obligations are not offered for public subscription or publicly negotiated in their respective listed markets. Instead, the Private equi ...
server
automation
Automation describes a wide range of technologies that reduce human intervention in processes, mainly by predetermining decision criteria, subprocess relationships, and related actions, as well as embodying those predeterminations in machine ...
and
virtualization
In computing, virtualization (abbreviated v12n) is a series of technologies that allows dividing of physical computing resources into a series of virtual machines, operating systems, processes or containers.
Virtualization began in the 1960s wit ...
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 Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...
,
Mac OS X
macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...
,
Linux
Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...
, and
Solaris, on a single computer.
The company was founded in 1997 and maintained its headquarters in
Herndon, Virginia
Herndon is a town in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. Located in Northern Virginia, it is part of the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area, Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. In 2020, the population at the census was 24,655, which makes i ...
, with additional offices throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. Its research and development offices were located in
Moscow, Russia
Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...
, and it had sales offices in
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
and
Singapore
Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...
.
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)
** PEM data center released
** Open Fusion launched
* 2004
** Announces partnership with
Acronis
Acronis International GmbH, simply referred to as Acronis, is a Swiss cybersecurity and data protection technology company with its corporate headquarters in Schaffhausen, Switzerland and global headquarters in Singapore. Acronis develops on-premi ...
**
Plesk 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.
Uses
SWsoft’s virtualization software is predominantly used to automate data center
A data center is a building, a dedicated space within a building, or a group of buildings used to house computer systems and associated components, such as telecommunications and storage systems.
Since IT operations are crucial for busines ...
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 system's 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
Defunct software companies of the United States