Virtual Iron Software

About Virtual Iron Software

Virtual Iron Software, Inc. operated as a vendor of proprietary software for server virtualization and the management of virtual infrastructures. Founded in 2003 by Alex Vasilevsky and Scott Davis, the company was initially established in Lowell, Massachusetts. It emerged during a period of intense development in virtualization technology, positioning itself as a competitor to VMware by leveraging the open-source Xen hypervisor. The company's business model focused on providing enterprise-class software solutions that were more accessible to the mainstream market, aiming to reduce the cost and complexity associated with virtualization.

The company's core offering was the Virtual Iron platform, a comprehensive suite for managing virtualized data centers. This platform consisted of three main components: a hypervisor based on the open-source Xen project, Virtualization Services, and the Virtualization Manager (VI-Center). The hypervisor created an abstraction layer from the physical hardware, notably being one of the first to fully support hardware-assisted virtualization from Intel (VT-x) and AMD (AMD-V). This allowed the software to run unmodified 32-bit and 64-bit guest operating systems with near-native performance. The VI-Center was a Java-based application providing a centralized console to control, automate, and monitor virtual resources. The platform's capabilities included server partitioning, rapid provisioning, disaster recovery, workload management, and policy-based automation. Key features included LiveMigrate for zero-downtime server migration, LiveRecovery for high availability, and LiveCapacity for dynamic resource balancing.

Virtual Iron's journey began as Katana Technology in 2001, which developed a sophisticated clustering technology using InfiniBand fabrics. Following the dot-com bust and a market shift, the company pivoted, changing its name to Virtual Iron, abandoning the proprietary hypervisor, and adopting the Xen hypervisor while repurposing its management tools. This strategic shift attracted significant venture capital from investors including Intel Capital, Goldman Sachs, Highland Capital Partners, and Matrix Partners, totaling over $60 million. The firm targeted its solutions primarily at small to mid-sized businesses. In May 2009, Oracle Corporation announced its agreement to acquire Virtual Iron for an undisclosed sum, aiming to integrate its dynamic management tools with Oracle's own VM technology. Shortly after the acquisition was finalized, Oracle discontinued the Virtual Iron product line.