Virtual Iron Software

Connection to Virtualization

Launched in 2003 to sell the Xen open-source hypervisor and services surrounding it, open source software vendor Virtual Iron was one of the few direct competitors to VMware that was not an operating system company or closely aligned with an OS company. That gave it greater independence and the ability to partner with larger vendors who were direct competitors with both one another and VMware.

www.virtualiron.com

Why It’s Significant

By giving away its VM software and charging for services and add-ons, Virtual Iron can put price pressure on VMware and other potential competitors, according to Chris Wolf, an industry analyst with The Burton Group. High-profile alliances with Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, AMD, Intel and Sun give it sales channels and marketing power that most open-source companies its size lack.

Key Products

• Virtualization Manager VM control console
• Virtualization Services VM installation and configurator
• Open Source Virtualization hypervisor

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