Back in June, Google teased Parallels coming to Chrome OS this fall, although it didn"t say much more than that. Today, Parallels expanded on that announcement, explaining that you"ll be able to run a full Windows virtual machine on your Chrome OS PC, with no internet connection required. Also, being a virtualization solution, you"re not dual-booting either.
"Parallels Desktop for Chromebook Enterprise will make it simple for IT administrators to provision Chromebooks with Windows virtual machines and the required full-featured Windows applications employees need to run,” said Nick Dobrovolsiky, Parallels Senior Vice President of Engineering and Customer Support. “IT admins will be able to easily manage familiar automated corporate Windows image deployments they prepare, provision, and automatically provide to their employees. Those virtual machines are fully capable Windows installations; admins can install applications, manage them remotely, and support users with familiar tools—just like they do with physical Windows PCs.”
For the time being though, it"s limited to Chrome OS Enterprise, meaning that this is specifically for business customers. It would seem that Parallels is set to be Google"s virtualization solution for Chrome OS, similar to how Microsoft has Hyper-V in Windows 10. At some point, this partnership could be expanded on to include support for emulators for use in software development, and more.
Parallels for Chromebook Enterprise should be arriving this fall. The main value proposition is set to be the ability to run full Windows apps for businesses. After all, as the blog post notes, just about every business needs some kind of Windows app.