I guess these things always take longer than expected and, while the dust is still not completely settled in all the ex-Sun geographies, it is high time we started looking at some of the great new assets in the Oracle VM portfolio. So let's start with one of the most exciting: Oracle VM VirtualBox. 

VirtualBox is cross-platform virtualization software, oftentimes called a hypervisor, and it runs on Windows, Linux, Solaris and the Mac. Which means that you download it, you install it on your existing platform, and start creating and running virtual machines alongside your existing applications. For example, on my Mac I can run Oracle Enterprise Linux and Windows 7 alongside my Mac apps like this...

(Click to zoom)

VirtualBox use has grown phenomenally to the point that at Sun it was the 3^rd most popular download behind Java and MySQL. Its success can be attributed to the fact that it doesn't need dedicated hardware, it can be installed on either client or server classes of computers, is very easy to use and is free for personal use. And, as you might expect, VirtualBox has it's own vibrant community too, over at www.virtualbox.org

There are hundreds of tutorials out there about how to use VirtualBox to create vm's and install different operating systems ranging from Windows 7 to ChromeOS, and if you don't want to install an operating system yourself, you can download pre-built virtual appliances from community sites such as VirtualBox Images or commercial companies selling subscriptions to whole application stacks, such as JumpBox . In no time you'll be creating and sharing your own vm's using the VirtualBox OVF export and import function.

VirtualBox is deceptively powerful. Under the simple GUI lies a formidable engine capable of running heavyweight multi-CPU virtual workloads, exhibiting Enterprise capabilities including a built-in remote display server, an iSCSI initiator for connecting to shared storage, and the ability to teleport running vm's from one host to another. And for solution builders, you should be aware that VirtualBox has a scriptable command line interface and an SDK and rich web service APIs.

To get a further feel for what VirtualBox is capable of, check out some of these short movies or simply go download it for yourself.

- FB