Following are a few real-world examples of people we know who use virtualization, to illustrate why it might be useful—and where it stops being such a great idea.
As you will see, virtualization is not for everyone, or for every situation. In many home situations, virtualization doesn’t provide much benefit, even while it adds to the complexity of your system. If, however, you are a power user who needs the equivalent of several systems to do all your work, you might find that virtualization has some significant benefits. Office users also might benefit from virtualization, both in terms of enhanced system security and for the ease with which the system environment can be deployed.
Example 1: Garage-Based Manufacturer
The first example is a manufacturer we know who builds small, specialized equipment for performance cars (we’re going to refer to them simply
as widgets) out of a facility in his garage. He deals with an extensive client base around the world, taking orders by mail order, by fax, and over the Internet, and he keeps himself and his two employees busy. His order entry/accounting system, though, runs on a total of three computers: One houses his order-entry database;a second one houses his accounting and shipment-processing software;and the third is his working desktop, where he reads the incoming email orders, runs spreadsheet calculations, and so on.
Our friend the widget manufacturer wants to modernize a bit and get rid of the multiple switches, monitors, and keyboards that he has to keep track of every time he changes systems to perform another step in his order-delivery process. He is an excellent candidate for virtualization because he could virtualize both his accounting database and his order-entry database, putting each in a separate virtual computer living on his high-performance desktop system. Given the upgraded inventory database he’s looking at investing in, virtualization might be a good idea.
Example 2: Freelance Graphic Artist and Publisher
The second example is a freelance graphic artist, photographer, and small-press publisher. She works from her home, working around her two daughters. During her downtime, she lets the girls use the office computer for games and schoolwork.
Because she wears multiple hats, and they’re all “small business” hats, our friend the publisher needs more than one system. She needs a high-performance graphic arts/publishing system, an “office” desktop—and she’d like to have a separate system for the kids to do their work on that protects her work environment from being infected by viruses or running into problems from games.
For her purposes, virtualization is almost ideal. She can configure a common “basic” desktop and then set up separate virtual systems for her graphic arts work, for her office needs, and for the kids. This keeps any security risks to a minimum and provides an easy method of backing up her artwork and production environment—she can simply back up the appropriate virtual system. It also provides a nearly impenetrable way to isolate the effects of her kids’ web surfing from her office and work environments.
Example 3: Multiple Home Users Under the Same Roof
One older family friend has several people using his computer. Each uses it for different things. He uses the computer for web surfing, email, and doing taxes. Someone else uses it for light office work, and the guest account uses it for web access.
In this case, there really isn’t any point in using virtualization. Separate user accounts provide all the access control needed, and there isn’t a significant gain to be had from providing separate system environments.
