SWsoft plans to snatch attention away from host VMware at the VMworld conference in San Francisco, starting 11 September, by showing off its pending first release of Parallels Server for Mac and an update for its flagship Virtuozzo operating-system virtualisation product.

As with the popular desktop version, Parallels Server will let users sit rival x86 operating systems alongside OS X. “You will be able to run other server OSes such as Enterprise Linux and Windows 2003 in a Parallels virtual machine on an Xserve, which will make [the Intel-based servers] even more powerful, useful components of datacentre infrastructure,” said Ben Rudolph, SWsoft director of corporate communications.

Both Virtuozzo v4 and Parallels Server are due to arrive later this year.

For its part, VMware is likely to showcase servers with virtualisation embedded to boost ease of deployment and reliability.

The largest firm in the sector is expected to show off a slimmer version of its ESX hypervisor that can sit in server firmware rather than having to be installed to disk. Dell has already discussed a project for servers that ship optimised for virtualisation without referring explicitly to VMware.

By packing core virtualisation capabilities into the server rather than on disk, VMware might silence those who say its technology is difficult to install.

Also expected at VMworld is a technical preview of the next release of VMware Server, also scheduled to arrive later this year. On the VMworld web site, VMware has already said that the release will have a web-based console for remote admin, and will be manageable by the next release of VirtualCenter.

With the chiefs of Cisco, Intel and AMD making keynote speeches, optimisations in switching and processors or chipsets are also likely.

Quest Software-owned Vizioncore will show off a beta of its new version of esxRanger that lets firms back up physical servers to virtual machines. Fastscale plans to show off a module for its Composer Suite to automate deployment of physical and virtualised servers.

VMworld will attract plenty of attention thanks to the halo effect caused by its host’s recent astonishing stock market debut. As of last week, VMware was valued at about $24bn, making it the equal of Adobe and about a third larger than Symantec.