Virtualization For Dummies®

Chapter 3. Understanding Virtualization: Technologies and Applications

In This Chapter

• Looking at operating system virtualization

• Examining hardware emulation

• Turning to paravirtualization

• Using virtualization in development and test environments

• Consolidating the data center with virtualization's help

• More advanced forms of server virtualization

You can easily appreciate the business benefits of virtualization: better use of corporate capital by reducing investment in hardware; reduced energy costs through server consolidation; lower operations costs through more efficient infrastructure administration; and freeing up space in overcrowded data centers. (Sounds like an MBA's idea of heaven, doesn't it?)

So, virtualization as a concept is definitely a good idea. Going from concept to reality, however, isn't a walk in the park. For example, a number of different server virtualization technologies are out there: operating system virtualization, hardware emulation, and paravirtualization, to be more precise. And you need to know what technologies the commercial virtualization products use, so that you can make an informed selection when it comes to choosing the product you'll use for your virtualization project. If that wasn't bad enough, you also have to use (or to be more precise, apply) virtualization itself a number of different ways. (You can stress server consolidation, failover, load balancing, or server pooling, for example.)

This chapter explores virtualization technologies and applications ...