Sun Boosts Virtualization with Innotek Buy

Sun Microsystems is delving deeper into virtualization, snapping up Innotek, developers of the open source VirtualBox that lets desktop operating systems run side-by-side.

Sun Microsystems is expanding its interest in virtualization, acquiring German developer Innotek, makers of the open source VirtualBox, which enables users to run desktop operating systems like Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X side-by-side. Sun did not disclose the terms of the acquisition, save to say it won’t have a material impact on Sun’s earnings. Sun plans to use VirtualBox to extend its own Sun xVM virtualization software, which is a hypervisor system based on the open source Xen project.

"VirtualBox provides Sun with the perfect complement to our recently announced Sun xVM Server product," said Sun executive VP Rich Green, in a statement. "Where Sun xVM Server is designed to enable dynamic IT at the heart of the datacenter, VirtualBox is ideal for any laptop or desktop environment."

The Innotek company was set up to support VirtualBox and manage its development; VirtualBox itself is open source. Current versions of VirtualBox are aimed at developers and software professionals rather than everyday consumers, but current versions of VirtualBox can handle multiple versions of Windows (from Vista all the way back to Windows 3.1), several Linux distributions, Sun’s Solaris x86, and even MS-DOS, Netware, and OS/2. These operating systems can be hosted on a variety of platforms, including Mac OS X on Intel-based Macs.

The Innotek acquisition represents Sun’s second major open source buy in recent weeks: in January, the company announced plans to aquire MySQL for $1 billion.