Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Appendix: History
of Virtualization and
A Brief History of System Virtualization
This appendix describes the origin and evolution of server virtualization, and de-
scribes design issues, problems, and solutions that still affect and influence today's
systems.
Then and Now, Why and How
A 40-year-old overnight success in commercial use since the 1960s, server virtu-
alization is now experiencing renewed interest. Available in different forms on
every modern computer family, server virtualization permits multiple computing
environments to coexist on a single computer, with each environment behaving
as if it has its own dedicated computer. IT organizations use this approach to
run multiple computing environments—even different operating systems—on
the same server at the same time. Server virtualization is perhaps a misnomer,
because the virtualized environments can also be desktop or embedded systems,
but virtualizing server systems is its most prominent use.
327
Search WWH ::
Custom Search