Oracle VM has received an update that looks to deliver enterprise scale performance enhancements for x86 and SPARC architectures while extending support for both Oracle and non-Oracle workloads.

Oracle’s server virtualization platform for x86 is free to download, but it doesn’t seem to that high on the legacy giant’s priority list judging from the fact that this new release, version 3.3, comes more than two years after version 3.2 first appeared.

Nevertheless, Oracle VM does have its fans who believe it sufficiently featured-filled to take on alternatives like Hyper-V and vSphere.

VM Server 3.3 comes with some nice updates too, and should allow it to win over a few more converts. New features include enhance support for Windows guests, Oracle Solaris and Oracle Linux. Those running workloads under the Solaris operating system can now point these at storage sources like iSCSI, Fiber Channel, ZFS volume, local disk and NFS. That should be a welcome boost for folks who prefer not to run seperate storage pools for different environments.

Security has also been given a boost, while network design has been simplified with new ways to define and operate VLANs. I/O requirements have also been reduced, and there’s also a new HTML-5 powered management console that eliminates the need for a Java virtual machine to be installed.

Oracle has been stepping up its virtual efforts lately. A few weeks ago the legacy giant updated its virtual compute alliance, its converged infrastructure software that’s now capable of using Intel’s latest and best chips. In addition, Oracle recently announced new ZFS storage appliances that it claims can boot up to 16,000 virtual machines in less than seven minutes.

But does this mean Oracle is becoming a serious rival to the major virtualization players? To be honest, not by a long shot – the company is still totally ignored by studies like IDC’s EMEA Quarterly Server Virtualization Tracker.

What with VMware likely to update vSphere in the coming weeks, and rumors of a refreshed Windows Server set to arrive sometime in 2015, if Oracle wants to reach the top tier it’ll need to a lot more than just shunt out an occasional update.

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