For my Chapter 2 blog, I chose to take a closer look at virtualization. The article I reviewed, "10 Cool Things Virtualization Lets You Do," by Keir Thomas, appeared on PCWorld.com on February 25, 2011. The article does a nice job of defining virtualization in layman's terms ("running two or more operating systems on one physical PC") and describes different ways of utilizing virtualization. The author notes that virtualization can benefit everyone, from the multi-billion dollar corporation to the one-man shop. VMWare is the current virtualization market leader, with Oracle also functioning as a major contender; both companies even provide "free of charge" versions of their software. Now on to the benefits… VMware Player offers a tool that allows you to run applications that were compatible with previous versions of Windows, but have difficulty interacting with Windows 7 or Vista. But wait, it gets better! Not only can you recycle old applications, there is virtualization software that allows you to reuse old hardware, turning your organizations forgotten workstations into what's called "thin-clients." Wise geek.com defines a "thin-client" as a computer that "contains enough information to start up and connect to a more powerful network server;" at that point, the server handles the computing workload. In this respect, virtualization would benefit an organization in two major ways: (1) a reduction in cost for hardware upgrades and (2) reduction in administration costs. Another benefit of utilizing virtualization is risk management. Operating on a virtual machine allows you to access corrupt or potentially virus- infected data with the ability to return the virtual operating system to its previous state, using a snapshot feature, if the virus causes your virtual environment to go bananas. Virtualization offers additional benefits with the ability to back up an entire operating system, providing disaster recovery space (by giving you the ability to back up your server), and the ability to "run headless" (which provides an ideal testing environment for web developers). So, this article confirms that virtualization does INDEED provide a little "something for everyone!"
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