A Parallels Virtual Appliance is a target service or application installed and configured inside a pre-built virtual machine for Parallels Desktop, Parallels Workstation or Parallels Server.
Why use a Parallels Virtual Appliance?Simplify and streamline traditionally complex, time-consuming maintenance procedures. Install, update, and migrate to another operating system simply by copying, moving, or replacing files.
Native support of Intel Virtualization Technology (VT-x) and AMD Virtualization (AMD-V) increases the virtual appliance’s performance.
Hypervisor technology ensures the Parallels Virtual Appliance’s stability and efficiency.
Once built, the Parallels Virtual Appliance can run on popular operating systems such as Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.
Because Parallels Virtual Appliance can be built on any supported guest operating system (Windows, Linux, Solaris, BSD, OS/2, eComStation, and DOS), you can create it for almost any application.
Parallels Virtual Appliances are ideal for many market appliances, especially those used for building IT infrastructures and deploying applications.
Building IT Infrastructures with Parallels Virtual Appliances
Modern IT infrastructures generally include multiple integrated services with several types of platforms, operating systems, and technologies. Installing, supporting, and monitoring these services requires much time and effort.
Creating a new service typically requires a great deal of time-consuming work. Assemble or mount the server hardware, install the operating system, security updates, and software applications, configure the software, and integrate it with the existing services.
Parallels Virtual Appliances enable you to perform these time-consuming tasks in minutes by copying the virtual appliance files and running the Parallels virtual machine with minimal configuration. You can update, backup, or migrate an existing virtual appliance by replacing a single file with an updated one, allowing you to distribute services between available hardware resources with little to no downtime.
Using services based on Parallels Virtual Appliances greatly increases the efficiency of hardware resources utilization by hosting a wide variety of different services, which remain completely isolated from each other, on a single hardware server. You can simultaneously run several services that use different operating systems inside virtual appliances on the same server or other hardware architectures supported by Parallels virtualization products.
Deploying Applications with Parallels Virtual Appliances
Traditional software distribution generally requires customers to install and configure software on custom hardware. Even for the technically savvy, this often results in additional time and cost losses.
Using Parallels Virtual Appliances, you can deploy the application by simply plugging the ready-to-use virtual appliance into the existing infrastructure.
The quality of the solution no longer depends on your hardware, software, or technical skills. The application has already been installed, configured, and tested in a single virtual environment and delivered as a ready-to-use Parallels Virtual Appliance. With no installation or configuration required, this greatly simplifies software development and distribution.