Tuesday, February 20,2007 @ 5:25pm
Virtualization: key to Apple in enterprise
Apple is trying to extend its reach into the enterprise market, and allowing users to run multiple 'virtualized' copies of Mac OS X on its own hardware will further its efforts, according to one report. Apple currently provides Intel Mac owners with a means to dual boot various operating systems -- such as Microsoft Windows -- via its Boot Camp beta software, and plans to integrate third-party operating system support in its forthcoming Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard update. Enterprise customers are easier to manage, partition, create, modify, and maintain when compared to separate physical machines. That fact suggests that big business may soon adopt smaller numbers of much larger servers running multiple virtualized operating systems, rather than numerous individual servers linked together. Computerworld suggests that pressure will quickly build for the Cupertino-based company to support virtualization software capable of running multiple copies of Mac OS X on Mac systems.