Parallels (company)

Last updated
Parallels International GmbH
Company type Subsidiary
Industry Virtualization
Genre Virtualization and Hosting Automation
Founded1999;25 years ago (1999)
FounderIlya Zubarev  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Headquarters Bellevue, Washington, United States [1]
Products Parallels Desktop for Mac
Parallels RAS
Parallels Toolbox
Parallels Access
Revenue US$100 million (2008) [2]
Number of employees
800+ [3]
Parent Alludo

Parallels International GmbH is a software company based in Bellevue, Washington. It is involved in the development of virtualization software for MacOS. The company has over 800 employees and offices in 14 countries, including the United States, Germany, United Kingdom, France, Japan, China, Spain, Malta, Australia, and Mauritius [4] [5] [3]

Contents

History

SWSoft, a privately held server automation and virtualization software company, developed software for running data centers, particularly for web-hosting service companies and application service providers. [6] Their Virtuozzo product was an early system-level server virtualization technology, in 2003, they acquired Plesk, a commercial web hosting platform. [7]

SWSoft acquired Parallels, Inc. in 2004, but this information was not made public until January of that year. [8] Parallels Workstation for Windows and Linux 2.0 [9] was released in the same year, with Parallels Desktop for Mac following in mid-2006. [10] Later the same year, the corporate headquarters moved from Herndon, Virginia, to Renton, Washington. Historically, their primary development labs were in Moscow and Novosibirsk, Russia. Parallels was founded by Serg Bell, who was born in the former Soviet Union and later immigrated to Singapore.

At Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference 2007 in San Francisco, California, Parallels announced and demonstrated its upcoming Parallels Server for Mac. [11] Parallels Server for Mac allows IT managers to run multiple server operating systems on a single Mac Xserve. [12] [13]

In 2007, there were reports of a lawsuit by the German company Netsys GmbH against Parallels' German distributor Avanquest for alleged copyright violation.[ citation needed ] Parallels Server for Mac was announced at WWDC, and later Parallels Technology Network. [14]

In 2008, SWSoft merged with Parallels to become one company under the Parallels branding, [15] which then acquired ModernGigabyte, LLC. [16] [17] Parallels Server for Mac was launched in June, [18] then in September Parallels Desktop 4 for Windows and Linux, a rename of Parallels Workstation for the 4.0 release, [19] and Parallels Desktop 4.0 for Mac [20] later that year. In the next version, 6.0, the Windows and Linux software became known as Parallels Workstation again.

From 2009 to 2011, the company launched Parallels Desktop 5 for Mac, [21] Parallels Desktop 6 for Mac, [22] Parallels Server for Mac 4.0 Mac mini edition, [23] Parallels Transporter, [24] Parallels Workstation 6 Extreme, [25] Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac, [26] Parallels Mobile for iOS, [27] and Parallels Workstation 6. [28]

During 2012, 2013 and 2014, the company discontinued Parallels Server for Mac, Windows and Linux, launched Parallels Desktop 8 for Mac and Mac Management for Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager, and released Parallels Desktop 10 for Mac.

Parallels acquired 2X Software in February 2015, [29] rebranded their service provider business to Odin, [30] later sold the Odin Service Automation Platform to Ingram Micro. [31] They also released Parallels Mac Management v4.0 for Microsoft SCCM and Parallels Desktop 11 for Mac.

In 2017, Virtuozzo and Plesk, two products from the pre-Parallels history of SWSoft, were spun out. [32] [33]

In December 2018, Corel announced that it had acquired Parallels. [34] [35]

On October 20, 2020, it was announced that Google had partnered with Parallels to bring Windows applications to enterprises and cloud workers using Chrome Enterprise. [36] [37]

On February 17, 2023, Microsoft announced a partnership with Parallels to enable Windows 11 support on Mac computers with M-Series processors using Parallels Desktop 18. [38] [39]

Products

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wine (software)</span> Windows compatibility software

Wine is a free and open-source compatibility layer to allow application software and computer games developed for Microsoft Windows to run on Unix-like operating systems. Developers can compile Windows applications against WineLib to help port them to Unix-like systems. Wine is predominantly written using black-box testing reverse-engineering, to avoid copyright issues. No code emulation or virtualization occurs. Wine is primarily developed for Linux and macOS.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alludo</span> Software company headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario

Cascade Parent Limited, doing business as Alludo, is a Canadian software company headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario, specializing in graphics processing. Formerly called the Corel Corporation, the company is known for producing software titles such as CorelDRAW, and for acquiring AfterShot Pro, PaintShop Pro, Painter, Video Studio and WordPerfect.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Xandros</span> Linux distribution

Xandros, Inc. was a software company which sold Xandros Desktop, a Linux distribution. The name Xandros was derived from the X Window System and the Greek island of Andros. Xandros was founded in May 2001 by Linux Global Partners. The company was headquartered in New York City with its development office in Ottawa, Canada.

Virtual PC is a discontinued x86 emulator for PowerPC Mac hosts and a hypervisor for Microsoft Windows hosts. It was created by Connectix in 1997 and acquired by Microsoft in 2003. The Mac version was discontinued in 2006 following the Mac transition to Intel, while the Windows version was discontinued in 2011 in favour of Hyper-V.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Corel Linux</span> Linux distribution

Corel Linux, also called Corel LinuxOS, was a Debian-based operating system made by Corel that began beta testing on September 21, 1999 and was released to the public on November 15, 1999. It mainly competed against Windows 98 and Windows 2000 by Microsoft, plus Mac OS 9 by Apple. Corel later discontinued the distribution, but did not remove the former Corel Open Source Development website until March 2002.

NX technology, commonly known as NX or NoMachine, is a remote access and remote control computer software allowing remote desktop access and maintenance of computers. It is developed by the Luxembourg-based company NoMachine S.à r.l.. NoMachine is proprietary software and is free-of-charge for non-commercial use.

Parallels Workstation is the first commercial software product released by Parallels, Inc., a developer of desktop and server virtualization software. The Workstation software comprises a virtual machine suite for Intel x86-compatible computers which allows the simultaneous creation and execution of multiple x86 virtual computers. They distributed the product as a download package. Parallels Workstation has been discontinued for Windows and Linux as of 2013.

OS-level virtualization is an operating system (OS) virtualization paradigm in which the kernel allows the existence of multiple isolated user space instances, called containers, zones, virtual private servers (OpenVZ), partitions, virtual environments (VEs), virtual kernels, or jails. Such instances may look like real computers from the point of view of programs running in them. A computer program running on an ordinary operating system can see all resources of that computer. However, programs running inside of a container can only see the container's contents and devices assigned to the container.

Microsoft Virtual Server was a virtualization solution that facilitated the creation of virtual machines on the Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2003 operating systems. Originally developed by Connectix, it was acquired by Microsoft prior to release. Virtual PC is Microsoft's related desktop virtualization software package.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parallels Desktop for Mac</span> Virtual machine software

Parallels Desktop for Mac is a hypervisor for Macintosh computers. Initially developed for Macintosh systems with Intel processors, version 16.5 introduced support for Macs with Apple silicon. Parallels, a subsidiary of Corel since 2018, is the developer of the software.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">VirtualBox</span> Open-source x86 virtualization application

Oracle VM VirtualBox is a hosted hypervisor for x86 virtualization developed by Oracle Corporation. VirtualBox was originally created by InnoTek Systemberatung GmbH, which was acquired by Sun Microsystems in 2008, which was in turn acquired by Oracle in 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hyper-V</span> Native hypervisor by Microsoft

Microsoft Hyper-V, codenamed Viridian, and briefly known before its release as Windows Server Virtualization, is a native hypervisor; it can create virtual machines on x86-64 systems running Windows. Starting with Windows 8, Hyper-V superseded Windows Virtual PC as the hardware virtualization component of the client editions of Windows NT. A server computer running Hyper-V can be configured to expose individual virtual machines to one or more networks. Hyper-V was first released with Windows Server 2008, and has been available without additional charge since Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8. A standalone Windows Hyper-V Server is free, but has a command-line interface only. The last version of free Hyper-V Server is Hyper-V Server 2019, which is based on Windows Server 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Virtualization</span> Methods for dividing computing resources

In computing, virtualization (v12n) is a series of technologies that allows dividing of physical computing resources into a series of virtual machines, operating systems, processes or containers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DisplayLink</span> American semiconductor and software technology company

DisplayLink is a semiconductor and software technology company owned by Synaptics, acquired in August 2020. The company specializes in developing DisplayLink USB graphics technology, enabling connections between computers and displays via USB, Ethernet, and WiFi. Additionally, it supports the connection of multiple displays to a single computer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CorelDRAW</span> Vector graphics editor

CorelDRAW is a vector graphics editor developed and marketed by Alludo. It is also the name of the Corel graphics suite, which includes the bitmap-image editor Corel Photo-Paint as well as other graphics-related programs. It can serve as a digital painting platform, desktop publishing suite, and is commonly used for production art in signmaking, vinyl and laser cutting and engraving, print-on-demand and other industry processes. Reduced-feature Standard and Essentials versions are also offered.

Second Level Address Translation (SLAT), also known as nested paging, is a hardware-assisted virtualization technology which makes it possible to avoid the overhead associated with software-managed shadow page tables.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2X Software</span> Maltese software company

2X Software was a Maltese software company specializing in virtual desktop, application virtualization, application delivery, Remote Desktop Services, remote access and Mobile Device Management. On 25 February 2015, 2X Software was acquired by Parallels, Inc. The 2X products, Remote Application Server and Mobile Device Management, are now included in Parallels' offering.

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 offer Infrastructure as a service, Container-as-a-Service, Platform as a service, Kubernetes-as-a-Service, WordPress-as-a-Service and other solutions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MSP360</span> Application service provider

MSP360, formerly CloudBerry Lab, is a software and application service provider company that develops online backup, remote desktop and file management products integrated with more than 20 cloud storage providers.

References

  1. "Worldwide Operations HQ". www.parallels.com. Archived from the original on 2008-10-28. Retrieved 2008-05-22.
  2. "Parallels CEO Sees IPO in a Few Years, Not an Acquisition". Bloomberg News . 6 July 2023. Archived from the original on 3 May 2024. Retrieved 10 March 2017.
  3. 1 2 "Career Opportunities". Archived from the original on 2017-08-02. Retrieved 2017-08-02.
  4. Staff Writer (10 June 2022). "COREL sets up centre of excellence in Mauritius, gears up to collaborate with academic institutions | Platform Africa". Archived from the original on 2022-10-21. Retrieved 2022-10-21.
  5. "Employment and training: Collaboration between Corel Corporation and Polytechnics Mauritius". Mauritius News. 2022-05-30. Archived from the original on 2022-10-21. Retrieved 2022-10-21.
  6. "SWsoft Renames Itself "Parallels"". ZDNET. Retrieved 2024-07-20.
  7. "Web Hosting News : SWsoft Acquires Plesk and Confixx to Create Global Hosting Software Powerhouse". HostReview. 2003-06-10. Archived from the original on 2008-12-01. Retrieved 2017-07-28.
  8. Cheng, Jacqui (22 January 2007). "Parallels acknowledges SWsoft ownership". ARS Technica. Archived from the original on 17 January 2009. Retrieved 14 June 2017.
  9. Rudolf, Ben (2005-12-08). "Parallels Announces the General Availability of Workstation 2.0 for $49 per License; Includes Full Support for Intel® Virtualization Technology". Parallels. Archived from the original on October 16, 2006.
  10. Rudolf, Benjamin (2006-06-15). "Computer Users Can Simultaneously Run Mac OS, Windows, Linux Programs with Parallels Desktop for Mac". Parallels. Archived from the original on February 18, 2007.
  11. Marshall, David (June 16, 2007) [04:03 PM]. "InfoWorld Virtualization Report | David Marshall | InfoWorld | Parallels Announces Features of its Mac Server Virtualization Product". Archived from the original on 2007-06-20. Retrieved 2017-04-19.
  12. "Parallels demos Mac server virtualization". Computer World. Archived from the original on 2007-11-06. Retrieved 2007-06-27.
  13. "Parallels Desktop 19 for Mac". Parallels. Archived from the original on 2008-10-11. Retrieved 2017-04-19.
  14. Cohen, Peter (2007-04-26). "Parallels Technology Network announced". Computer World. Archived from the original on 2007-11-23.
  15. Marshall, David (January 29, 2008) [08:03 PM]. "InfoWorld Virtualization Report | David Marshall | InfoWorld | Parallels Announces Virtuozzo Containers 4.0". Archived from the original on February 2, 2008.
  16. "Web Host Industry News | Parallels Acquires ModernGigabyte". Web Hosting Talk. Archived from the original on 2008-03-31. Retrieved 2008-04-11.
  17. "Parallels.com | Parallels Acquires ModernGigabyte". Parallels. Archived from the original on 2008-05-11.
  18. Marshall, David (June 18, 2008) [08:14 AM]. "Virtualization Report | David Marshall | InfoWorld | Parallels announces the first Mac server virtualization platform". Archived from the original on June 19, 2008.
  19. "Desktop 4 for Windows and Linux Leverages Industry-Leading Mac Technology to Enable Widespread Adoption of PC Virtualization". Parallels. 2009-09-01. Archived from the original on 2012-03-31. Retrieved 2012-07-31.
  20. "Desktop 4.0 for Mac Offers Premium Windows-on-Mac Experience". Parallels. Archived from the original on 2012-02-29. Retrieved 2012-07-31.
  21. "Desktop 5 for Mac Offers Fastest Performance on Snow Leopard and for Windows 7 Available". Parallels. Archived from the original on 2012-09-09. Retrieved 2012-07-31.
  22. "Desktop 6 for Mac Delivers Unprecedented New and Enhanced Features for Best Windows on Mac Experience Yet". Parallels. Archived from the original on 2012-07-08. Retrieved 2012-07-31.
  23. "Server for Mac 4.0 Mac mini Edition Launch Lets Businesses Run Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows and Linux Environments Side-by-Side on an Apple Mac mini". Parallels. 2011-05-11. Archived from the original on 2012-03-07. Retrieved 2012-07-31.
  24. "Transporter Launches on the Mac App Store, Makes the Move from a PC to a Mac Easy". Parallels. 2011-05-18. Archived from the original on 2013-04-10. Retrieved 2012-07-31.
  25. "Workstation 6 Extreme makes the consolidated professional graphics workstation a reality through unmatched performance of direct assignment technology". Parallels. 2011-08-09. Archived from the original on 2012-05-16. Retrieved 2012-07-31.
  26. "Desktop 7 for Mac Makes Windows Programs Roar with Mac OS X Lion Features; New Parallels Mobile App Delivers OS X and Windows Control Plus Flash Videos with Sound". Parallels. Archived from the original on 2012-05-31. Retrieved 2012-07-31.
  27. "New Parallels Mobile App for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch Delivers Anytime Anywhere Control of Mac OS X, Windows, Ubuntu, Chrome, Fedora, Applications and Files on Your Mac". Parallels. 2011-09-01. Archived from the original on 2012-05-29. Retrieved 2012-07-31.
  28. "Workstation 6 Gives Web Designers and IT Professionals Seamless Capabilities for Running Multiple Operating Systems – Including Windows 8 – on a Single PC". Parallels. 2011-11-08. Archived from the original on 2012-09-20. Retrieved 2012-07-31.
  29. Madden, Brian (2015-02-26). "Parallels Buys 2X Software". brianmadden.com. Archived from the original on 2016-03-09. Retrieved April 26, 2017.
  30. "We've Changed Our Name – Parallels Service Provider Business is Now Odin". blog.odin.com. Archived from the original on 2015-03-26. Retrieved 2015-11-14.
  31. "Parallels Holdings Limited Announces the Sale of its Odin Service Automation Platform to Ingram Micro". www.odin.com. December 2, 2015. Archived from the original on 2016-03-26. Retrieved 2016-03-30.
  32. Sharwood, Simon (2016-05-12). "Virtuozzo to build full container stack, target the data centre". The Register . Archived from the original on 2017-08-06. Retrieved 2017-09-07.
  33. "Home". www.odin.com. Archived from the original on 2016-04-26. Retrieved 2016-07-07.
  34. Bonuccelli, Giorgio (15 February 2017). "CIOReview Magazine Praises Parallels: One of the "20 Most Promising Server Technology Solution Providers 2016"". Parallels. Archived from the original on 4 December 2019. Retrieved 4 December 2019.
  35. Dignan, Larry. "Corel buys Parallels for Windows on Mac play". ZDNet. Archived from the original on 2018-12-20. Retrieved 2018-12-20.
  36. 1 2 "Parallels Desktop for Chromebook Enterprise". Parallels. 2 September 2021. Archived from the original on 21 October 2020. Retrieved 20 October 2020.
  37. Warren, Tom (2020-10-20). "Windows apps now run on Chromebooks with Parallels Desktop". The Verge. Archived from the original on 2023-08-22. Retrieved 2024-02-11.
  38. "Options for using Windows 11 with Mac® computers with Apple® M1® and M2™ chips - Microsoft Support". support.microsoft.com. Archived from the original on 2023-02-17. Retrieved 2023-02-17.
  39. Warren, Tom (2023-02-16). "Microsoft to support Windows 11 on Apple M1 and M2 Macs through Parallels partnership". The Verge. Archived from the original on 2024-02-21. Retrieved 2024-02-11.
  40. "Parallels acquires remote application server developer 2X Software". zdnet. 2015-02-25. Archived from the original on 2017-01-04. Retrieved 2018-01-31.
  41. Endicott, Sean (2018-02-28). "Parallels Toolbox is a Swiss Army knife for Windows 10". Windows Central. Archived from the original on 2022-09-30. Retrieved 2022-09-29.
  42. "Parallels Access Support". www.parallels.com. 2022-07-28. Archived from the original on 2024-06-11. Retrieved 2024-06-11.
  43. "Parallels Access". www.parallels.com. 2022-07-28. Archived from the original on 2022-09-30. Retrieved 2022-09-30.