Technology gurus tend to use complicated lingo; it is our nature. We too often assume that everyone else outside of our bubble knows what in the world we are talking about. One of the tech terms we have been hearing a lot recently is virtualization.

At the risk of making this into a bunch of gobbledygook, we should stress that there are several types of virtualization, including hardware, software, memory, storage, data, network and others. For simplicity’s sake, we will focus our energies on the most common: hardware/platform full virtualization.

Hardware virtualization is, simply put, the emulation of some hardware-based platform in a software-based virtual machine. When it is created, it lives through its life cycle believing it is a real computer, complete with its own CPU(s), Hard drive(s), RAM, Network Card(s), etc.

So, how does it work?

It works by having a lot of hardware resources (physical machines) clustered together. Software then allocates their resources creating ‘Virtual Machines’ with its own Operating System and so forth. Virtual Servers can move from physical machine to physical machine as well as modify its resources with a click of a button. Each machine can have its own network settings, Internet Connection, and Firewall.

If it is so simple, what is the big deal then?

Provisioning server has never been so easy. Adding Memory, Disk Space, even a processor with the click of a button and quick reboot often within five minutes! It is a technology that can improve your redundancy, allow you and your IT department more flexibility and high availability for those mission critical servers, all through an intuitive web-based interface. However, even the most proven technology is not perfect for every environment. Many high-performance applications in multi-tier clusters are not optimal for this environment.

With virtualization, you are no longer trapped in the hardware PC box since you can essentially split your single hardware PC into two, or three, or five… or as many as the host PC/Server can handle. In addition, adding memory, disk space, or even an extra processor is as easy as a click of a button and a quick reboot. Sometimes within 5 minutes you will have your new virtual system up and running.

Learn if a Virtual Server is right for you.