Interview: Martin Maurer from Proxmox

Proxmox VE is a very light-weight Debian-based distribution that includes a kernel with support for both KVM and OpenVZ. This means you get the best of both virtualization worlds... containers (OS Virtualization) and fully-virtualized machines (Machine Virtualization). Proxmox VE also includes a very powerful yet easy to use web-based management system with clustering features. Boot the Proxmox VE install media, answer a few simple questions, and within 10 minutes you have a very powerful virtualization platform you can manage from a web browser. Install it on one or more additional machines that are networked together and use Proxmox VE's cluster management tool to create a virtualization cluster that allows for centralized management, automated backups, iso media and OS Template syncing, as well as migration features. Proxmox VE really is a time saving turnkey solution... and it is freely available under a GPL license.



ML: Please tell me about your company. How did it get started? Where did the name Proxmox come from? Where is it located? What products do you offer?



Martin: Proxmox was founded in 2005 but the team behind it has been working together since 1999 developing software and doing server administration (mainly Linux but also others). The reason for starting a new company in 2005 was the introduction of our Proxmox Mail Gateway product which we sell worldwide via partners. Proxmox VE became our second product. We sell support services to those who want them and will be extending the offerings, step by step, as the demand grows.



The name? Yes, that is a commonly asked question. I enjoy mountain climbing and on a never ending long uphill it just hit my brain. I returned from the trip and typed "Proxmox" into Google and got NO returns. So it was clear that I found a new name, registered everything and the rest is history.



Our office is in the city of Vienna that has a population of 1.7 million people. Austria is not known as a big open source country but there are a lot of really experienced Linux developers around. Just think of Linbit (developers of DRBD) - they are just a few miles away.

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