VMworld 2009: What is virtualization?

>> Hello. This is Sam Diaz for ZDNet. I'm here at VMworld 2009 in San Francisco and of course in a show like this, one of the big words is virtualization. We're hearing it everywhere, but if virtualization goes a little bit into the mainstream, we can't help but wonder, what exactly does virtualization mean. We're going to ask some people inside what their definition is.

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>> To me, virtualization is, you know, basically taking in your servers and putting them into an application form on to another server, you know, where you can actually fit several times what you could fit on a physical server.

>> Virtualization is a practice of abstracting out the logical digital signature of the operating system from the physical infrastructure upon which it resides. So, if I would have virtual hypervisor, it allows me to have several guest operating systems all running on a single physical server.

>> I tell them that virtualization is the ability to be a moving target at all times, keeping yourself mobile and always making sure that you can adapt to the changing business environment.

>> Yeah, virtualization is putting lots of machines on to one or two smaller -- you know not smaller machine, but on to a hard ware so that you can do more with less, I guess if it works out too.

>> It is the ability to take a single computer device, piece of hard ware and have multiple instances of an operating system running on it instead of just one. So, it allows you to maximize and make better efficient use of the computing resources that are on that system.

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>> Here at VMworld in San Francisco virtualization is supposed to mean the reduction of complexity from the data center. But, virtualization's definition is far from anything, but complex. It means different things to different people and it just goes to show that over time virtualization has evolved and will continue to. For ZDNet, I'm Sam Diaz.

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