Corporate VAR Computacenter has become the first to achieve Gold partner status with virtualisation and automation vendor Parallels.

The partnership gives Computacenter another string to its virtualisation bow by adding the company’s Virtuozzo Container software to its portfolio of offerings.

Parallels Virtuozzo Containers sits on the operating system level, rather than directly on top of the hardware, creating virtual servers so multiple isolated workloads can be run simultaneously.

As a Gold partner, Computacenter will receive preferential pricing, qualified opportunities generated by Parallels, technical expertise and marketing support such as seminars and tailored webinars.

Paul Casey, datacentre and storage virtualisation technology leader at Computacenter, said Parallels offers an alternative in the market. “We started watching Parallels in 2003 when it was beginning to get a hold on the hosting market.”

“Parallels’ offering is not a new technology ­ it is a well established alternative to VMware, not a start up company. Parallel’s offering can sit nicely alongside VMware if needed.”

Russell Blackburn, country manager for the UK and Ireland at Parallels, said: “VMware and Citrix are expensive and customers do not see the returns for a few years.

“Parallels will be engaging with Computacenter directly and generating leads. Our new partner will provide us with professional services.”

Blackburn claimed Parallels Virtuozzo Containers offers three times the density of other server virtualisation solutions, making it a more cost-effective approach to adopting virtual desktop infrastructure.

Previously known as SWSoft, the vendor re-branded as Parallels last year to establish a unified brand.