The oVirt project has announced that Canonical, Cisco, IBM, Intel, NetApp, Red Hat and SUSE have joined together to help create a new open source community for the development of open virtualization platforms, including virtual management tools to manage the Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) hypervisor.

The oVirt project has been formed to deliver and establish a development community around an integrated virtualization platform that offers advanced virtualization management capabilities for hosts and guests, including high availability, live migration, storage management, system scheduler and more. The oVirt project comes on the heels of the formation of the Open Virtualization Alliance in May 2011 to foster the adoption of KVM as an open virtualization alternative.

"We are excited to be a part of the oVirt project," said Jean Staten Healy, director, Worldwide Linux and Open Virtualization, IBM. "Our clients are looking for open alternatives to traditional virtualization technology, both for the hypervisor and virtualization management. This project and the work of the Open Virtualization Alliance are important steps forward in making open virtualization a reality for businesses around the world."

For more information about the oVirt project or to get involved, visit www.ovirt.org.

Jason Brooks of eWeek.com has been testing the oVirt code. Check it out in "Taking oVirt for a Spin."