The Xen open-source virtualization environment is not yet ready for enterprise use, a senior Red Hat executive has said, despite "unbelievable" customer demand and the fact that Novell has already started shipping the software.
Xen, which is primarily being developed by U.S.-based start-up XenSource, allows users to run multiple operating systems as guest virtual machines on the same hardware.
But while Novell this month started shipping the software with version 10 of its SUSE Linux Enterprise Server environment, Red Hat continues to have a lack of confidence in the virtualization newcomer, said Alex Pinchev, a vice president of international operations at the software company.
Instead of trying to play catch-up with rival Novell and simply shipping Xen as included software with its operating system, Red Hat will attempt to build a full virtualization platform around the production the next version of its Red Hat Enterprise Linux server software,due to be released in December. That platform will include software for storage virtualization, for example, as well as systems management and provisioning tools, Pinchev said. He noted there was an "unbelievable" demand for virtualization software from customers.