Virtualization

In my earlier post on Back-up and Storage, you read about my views on the importance of optimizing storage resources. I have a similar feeling about Virtualization and it is finally getting some attention from enterprise IT. Virtualization refers to the ability within the network to consolidate computing resources or servers by allowing virtual machines (VMs) to migrate freely between servers. Virtualization has been around for a longtime but some recent developments in Virtualization software are making it a better proposition. Virtualization is implemented by running a layer of software called virtual machine monitor (VMM) directly on the server hardware which allows the “guest” operating systems a complete interface on the virtual machines (VMs). As it involves the management of the hardware resources, it requires active participation of chip manufactures like Intel and AMD. The latest development in virtual machine monitor (VMM) is advent of open source technologies. This server consolidation not only makes the job for Data Center Manger easy but it reduces the operating cost by utilizing the under-utilized servers.
We have quite a few vendors with Virtualization software like Novell, Hewlett-Packard, and Intel etc which work with host of “guest” operating systems like Windows NT, Netware, Linux and different processors like 32-bit, 64 bit. Go Virtual.