VirtualBox 3.1 Adds Live Migration and Branched Snapshots

Sun’s VirtualBox got a big boost on Monday with the release of version 3.1. It introduced a number of significant new features, including support for live migration and vastly improved snapshot capabilities. The open source virtualization tool is improving at a rapid pace.

VirtualBox was created by Innotek, a German software company that was acquired last year by Sun. Although VirtualBox is primarily intended for conventional desktop virtualization scenarios, its developers are adding enterprise features that reflect a growing potential for viability in the server space. The newly-added support for live migration–called “Teleportation” in the VirtualBox documentation–is an impressive example of this trend in the program’s development.