Mastering VMware vSphere® 5

Introduction

I remember in 2004 (or was it 2003?) when I first started describing the use of server virtualization to a colleague of mine. VMware was pretty much the only vendor in the server virtualization space at the time, and I was describing to him how you could use virtualization to run multiple instances of an operating system on the same physical hardware. I was so excited. He merely asked, “Why in the world would you want to do that?”

The times have changed quite a bit since that time, and now virtualization—especially server virtualization—is readily embraced in corporate datacenters worldwide. VMware has gone from a relatively small vendor to one of the corporate heavyweights, garnering a commanding share of the server virtualization ...