Sun Microsystems announced that Sun xVM VirtualBox, a high performance, free and open source desktop virtualization software, has surpassed five million downloads in just 18 months. With xVM VirtualBox software, end users can access their favorite software using any operating system and developers can build, test and run cross-platform, multi-tier applications on a single laptop or desktop computer. xVM VirtualBox 1.6 software is a free hypervisor to support all major host operating systems (OS), including Mac OS X, Linux, Windows, Solaris and OpenSolaris. The software can be downloaded free of charge at www.virtualbox.org and www.openxvm.org.

"Sun xVM VirtualBox is transforming the way people develop software," said Steve Wilson, vice president for xVM, Sun Microsystems. "Developers no longer need to be tethered to big testing labs. xVM VirtualBox software empowers developers to create multiple virtual machines, network them together and deploy them using their favorite operating system - all from a single laptop. With our xVM family of products, Sun delivers technologies to meet every virtualization need from the desktop to the datacenter."

xVM VirtualBox 1.6 Software
Following the acquisition of innotek in early 2008, Sun unveiled xVM VirtualBox 1.6 software earlier this month. Currently downloaded more than 10,000 times a day, the new version includes more than 2,000 enhancements and full support for Mac OS X, Solaris and OpenSolaris host operating systems. It also features newly added support for high performance virtual devices, improved scalability and Web services for remote administration.

xVM VirtualBox software lets users create "virtual machines" into which they can install whichever operating system they choose, so the same computer can run multiple operating systems and applications at the same time. The software supports a huge range of host and guest operating systems enabling users to run everything from the latest Microsoft Vista and OpenSolaris applications to old Windows 98, OS2 or DOS alongside Apple applications on a new Mac laptop, for example. A mere 20 megabyte download, xVM VirtualBox software is incredibly compact and efficient and installs in less than five minutes. It is licensed in an open source edition under GPLv2 as well as in its binary form under a Personal Use License.

xVM VirtualBox software is a key component of Sun's broader xVM virtualization and management software portfolio, which includes Sun xVM Ops Center , Sun xVM Server, expected for release in the Summer of 2008, and the Sun Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Software. Targeted at end users, developers and SMBs, xVM VirtualBox software is the entry-level offering into the Sun xVM platform and is designed for a broad range of customers of all sizes.

OEM Zenith InfoTech Chooses xVM VirtualBox Software Over the Competition
With APIs exposed at every level, including Web Services, xVM VirtualBox software is designed to be leveraged by Sun's partner ecosystem to create VirtualBox-based solutions. xVM VirtualBox software provides solution builders and OEMs with many revenue-generating opportunities, such as the ability to sell value added secure desktop services and to deliver applications to markets that couldn't access virtualization technologies previously or need more consistent environments. Zenith Infotech is one of the many xVM VirtualBox OEMs that has built its network attached storage appliance for small and medium-sized businesses on Sun's high performance, low-footprint hypervisor.

Akash Saraf, CEO of Zenith Infotech, said: "We looked at all of the big competitors out there including VMware. After evaluating the competition, we found the best performance, features and extensibility in xVM VirtualBox software. These are critical to the storage capacity, continuous backup and disaster recovery of the solution we provide to SMBs. We've eliminated downtime using virtual machine redundancy that requires less significant customer investment than do traditional high availability solutions. Zenith is building a successful business based on the xVM VirtualBox software. And Sun has worked with us to provide great architectural expertise, support, engineering fixes and even feature development."

Sun's Virtualization Products and Services
Sun offers a complete desktop-to-datacenter virtualization product portfolio and comprehensive set of virtualization service offerings to help customers deploy new services faster, maximize the utilization of system resources, and more easily monitor and manage virtualized environments. Sun's virtualization products provide unified software management tools and virtualization capabilities across operating systems, servers, storage, desktops and processors. For additional information visit: www.sun.com/virtualbox and to download the software from Sun.com go to: www.sun.com/software.

• Sun’s VirtualBox Grows Up