Virtualization Resources for System Administrators

last updated on 2008-01-11

The term virtualization has been around for a long time, and it's used in various ways. Wikipedia* provides the following definition, which is how the term is typically used in computing environments:

"In computing, virtualization is a broad term that refers to the abstraction of computer resources."

Here's another useful definition: "Virtualization is a technique for hiding the physical characteristics of computing resources from the way in which other systems, applications, or end users interact with those resources" (from Virtualization 101*, by Andi Mann, Enterprise Management Associates).

The abstraction or hiding of physical characteristics leads to various scenarios, such as:

• One physical resource looking like a logical resource that has different characteristics than the physical resource
• One physical resource looking like multiple logical resources
• Multiple physical resources looking like one logical resource

As a result, there are many different types of virtualization, including the following, all of which aim to increase resource utilization, reduce operating costs, and build an IT infrastructure that is more agile and better able to support critical business needs:

• Server virtualization
• OS virtualization
• Storage virtualization
• Desktop virtualization
• Application virtualization
• Network virtualization