Second Life Getting Enterprise Edition Hardware Appliance

Linden Lab, the company behind Second Life, is launching a beta version of Second Life Enterprise, which will enable companies to run Second Life on their own servers and networks. Putting the software behind the firewall will eliminate confidentiality and safety concerns for enterprises who want to use Second Life for virtual conference calls and meetings. The beta is expected to run through the end of the year, with an official release by March 2010.

Linden Labs runs the public version of the virtual world software on its own servers, so organizations have limited control over security, downtime and maintenance. The 1,400 companies currently using Second Life for meetings, training, and conference calls is a small number compared to those using sites like Facebook and Twitter, but Linden labs hope to expand the number with the new offering.

Second Life Enterprise takes the form of a $55,000 hardware appliance which companies install in their own data centers, behind the company firewall. Up to around 700 avatars can be logged in concurrently and can support up to eight simultaneous virtual regions, like training centers and conference halls. Users will be able to transfer virtual goods between the public second life and the Enterprise version, but avatars must remain separate. Organizations now beta testing the new service include as IBM, Northrop Grumman, Case Western Reserve University, and Chicago Children's Memorial Hospital.