Virtualization is a young and growing industry that involves transforming computer resources into virtual machines. Virtual machines are defined as “an efficient, isolated duplicate of a real machine” (Wikipedia). The processes and extents to which these machines can maximize capabilities are quite variable, as several forms exist. Before virtualization, IBM created the practice of “time sharing.” This allowed users to run several programs at once on a single-processor system so that processor time was not wasted waiting for input from a resource. Essentially, time-sharing allowed processes to switch between being executed and waiting to be executed. This is done so quickly that it gives the appearance they are executing at once. This notion served as a precursor to virtualization and piqued the interest of those in search for computer efficiency maximization.

System virtual machines are essentially server consolidation devices, as you can run multiple operating systems and applications on one system platform. Specifically, through virtualization a single computer is then divided into several isolated environments. The technology works by creating a software replica of all hardware components on a computer, including its central processing unit, memory, hard drive, network card, etc; thus ‘the virtual machine’ as described formerly. With that replica, IT managers can generate multiple computing environments. In a virtualized data center, IT departments could align physical resources with software needs, adding or subtracting computing capacity as necessary (SearchSystemsChannel). Furthermore, they could consolidate numerous underused servers onto a smaller number of physical machines and run multiple operating systems, such as Windows and Linux, on a single server.

On the other hand, a process virtual machine is designed to run one single program; therefore, it only supports a single process. A process is one or more threads in a computer program that are sequentially executed by a computer system that has the ability to run several programs concurrently (Wikipedia). Although less complex than its system virtual machine counterpart, process virtual machines are equally as innovative as they are essentially a ‘universal language’ of underlying hardware and operating systems. They allow a program to execute the same way on any platform, thus providing an ideal environment for programming parallel applications; whereas, in the past, programmers faced challenges with communication mechanisms.
Virtualization has many advantages apart from enabling users to run multiple operating system environments on the same computer. As touched upon earlier, this innovative technology also provides application provisioning, maintenance, high availability and disaster recovery (SearchSystemsChannel). Finally, and most importantly, virtualization has very high return on interest repercussions; it can save companies substantial sums of money due to its ability to consolidate servers and applications. Servers frequently run with idling CPUs and essentially never utilize the majority of their capacity. For businesses, this translates into additional expenses that serve no purpose. Running multiple virtual machines on one server solves this problem, as the client uses more of its capacity. Now, applications and operating systems can be packaged and sent as one huge file, instead of thousands of fragmented files.
The reasons behind decisions for adopting virtualization are clear, whether it is to avoid catastrophic system failures, to simplify the process of computer programming, to improve efficiency of the computing system, or to save money. A prime example of utilizing a virtual machine on the consumer level can be observed in the form of Mac OS X’s ability to run Windows in order to make up for the incompatibility of most software. An added perk is that there are currently no major drawbacks to using this system. This is coupled with the fact that Citrix’s XenServer is an open-source virtualization software allowing for rapid improvements and innovation. Consequently, society may hear the term ‘virtualization’ used more and more frequently in everyday life, as it is a revolutionary technology that is certainly here to stay.

Works Cited

Hagiu, Andrei, Slind, Michael, and David B. Yoffie. “VMware Inc., 2008.” Harvard Business School. 18 Sept. 2008. Print. 23 Sept. 2009.

Shavit, Yuval. “Advantages and Disadvantages of Server Virtualization.” SearchSystemsChannel.com. TechTarget Media Group, 26 Mar. 2008. Web. 23 Sept. 2009.

“Virtual Machine.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 21 Sept. 2009. Web. 23 Sept. 2009.