Virtualization...! What does that mean in Computing?
Wikipedia defines it as "[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. This includes making a single physical resource (such as a server, an operating system, an application, or storage device) appear to function as multiple logical resources; or it can include making multiple physical resources (such as storage devices or servers) appear as a single logical resource."
In simple words Virtualization is about making Software fool (whether it is system or application). Sorry for my harsh words. This technology makes guest software feel like they are interacting with real hardware/resource while it is nothing but a layer created by Virtualization enabled software application.
Softwares with Virtualization Technology for System softwares/Operating system are called as Virtual Machine(s), I mean we can install Operating System with such softwares and they will be actually Machine inside Machine. All the resources used by Guest Virtual Machine will be using physical resources from Host Machine/Operating System.
It is good to use Virtualization for Software Testing, Deployment over multiple platforms and it's usage has long list. It will require really good hardware configuration for machines we are willing to install VMs.
Here is the list of System Virtualization enabled softwares for reference. Read the rest of this entry »
