It’S no SeCRet a technology long associated with mainframe computers, has been transforming data centers due to its ability to
that virtualization,
consolidate hardware resources and reduce energy costs. But in addition to its impact on data centers, virtualization is emerging as a viable technology for smartphones and virtual private networks, as well as being used to re-conceive agile and cloud computing.
Over the past decade there has been a great deal of work on improving the performance, enhancing the flexibility, and increasing the manage-ability of virtualization technologies. Developments in the past five years alone, for example, include the ability to move a running virtual machine, along with its live operating system and applications, to a physical host without major downtime. The industry has also recently witnessed the ability of virtualization to log the actions of a virtual machine in real time, with the purpose of being able to roll back an entire system to an arbitrary point and then roll it forward for debugging or auditing. These and other recent developments have positioned virtualization as a core technology in cloud computing and have facilitated the technology’s move to the desktop.
“It’s clear that virtualization is here to stay,” says Steve Herrod, chief technology officer at VMware. “In the future, we’ll look back at the nonvirtual-ized compute models as we look back at the phonograph and bulky CRTs.” But Herrod also says that the industry is far from realizing the full benefits that virtualization can bring to desktops, laptops, and smartphones. “ Virtualization is picking up steam rapidly for desktop users, but it has certainly not achieved ubiquity yet,” he says. “End users don’t want or need to know that
an imac computer, with Vmware fusion, which enables it to run Windows XP Pro on the left screen, Windows Vista home on the right, and mac os X Leopard in the background.
virtualization is being used; they want access to their applications, and they want the very rich media experiences that many modern applications offer.”
Arguably, one of the most interesting and novel uses of the technology is on mobile devices, where virtualization enables several new use-cases, such as isolating work and home smartphones on a single physical handset. Gartner predicts that more than 50% of new smartphones will have a virtualization layer by the year 2012. The need for virtualization on smartphones is strong, says Herrod, particularly as these devices become more powerful, as mobile applications become more advanced, and as security becomes a bigger issue. “Just as in the early days of our x86 desktop virtualization efforts, we see many different benefits that will come with this virtualization,” says Herrod.
As one example, Herrod cites the substantial testing procedures that every new handset must undergo
prior to shipping. Virtualization, he says, will let handset manufacturers test once and deploy on different handsets. For the carriers, Herrod predicts that virtualization will enable a new set of services, such as allowing users to deploy a virtual copy of their mobile data to a newly purchased handset. And for businesses, he says that those who want a single handset for home and work will be able to use different virtual phones. “Their work phone could be restricted to very specific applications and corporate data that is secure and completely isolated from their home phone, where they may have personal information and games,” he says. “The more we talk with people about this new area, the more use-cases we find.”
screenshot By christo Pher glisson
The notion that one of the strengths of virtualization is its ability to isolate data and applications corresponds to another aspect of the technology
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