Living La Vida Virtual

Throughout history technology has been the catalyst for change in business and our daily lives. Many technologies change the fabric of our lifestyle so profoundly that we can hardly operate without them (electricity, flight, telephones, and the Internet). While these big leaps of advancement are milestones that we can read about in history books, it is often the smaller adaptations of these technologies that really have a profound effect on us. One such technology wrinkle is Virtual Machines (VM).

VM may not be a huge leap forward, but it will be a real improvement on existing IT infrastructure that will have a profound effect on our lives for many years. It has its origins in the 1960’s, but modern VM technology enables the ability for one computer to host several (unlimited) virtual computers, without regard for the type or number of operating systems. In other words, you could have a Windows XP, Ubuntu, and OS/2 machine all operating on the same CPU, RAM, NIC, and disk drive hardware. All of these operating systems function as if they were the only one installed on the computer, and all of them can be used simultaneously.

So what is so great about VM? Why should you care about it? Consider a Desktop Support environment where you need to trouble shoot print driver problems. Your customers might have Windows XP, Vista, Windows Server 2003, and Linux. If you are going to support all of these systems, you need to recreate the environment by purchasing equipment to run all of these operating systems, and then physically set them up to run accordingly. In a virtual environment, you can simply create machines on one PC that runs all of these operating systems. As calls come in you simply switch from one environment to another as needed.

Another huge benefit to VM is in purchasing servers. Many application servers are underutilized and operate at a fraction of their capacity. By installing virtual machines on a single box, you can have a database server, email server, or other functional processes running on the same device, saving the cost of the hardware and reducing energy consumption.

As VM becomes ingrained in the IT infrastructure of organizations there will be even more adoption. The future could be a new dynamic in managing and purchasing hardware. An example of this could be in virtual desktops. If a company operated using virtual desktops, they could purchase inexpensive dumb terminals with only a web browser loaded. Then all the users would remote into their ‘virtual desktop’ and use whatever operating system the company wanted. All the users would be on a single server, but it would appear that they were working independently. There is even a virtual network and shared resources such as printers, folders, or other group items.

VM is not the ‘last technology’ we will ever need, but it represents a substantive change in how hardware and software will be handled in the future. If you sell or service technology, you and your customers will be well served utilizing VM.

Note: There are many companies that offer virtual machine technology, but two common versions are VMWare and Microsoft (Virtual PC or server-centric Hyper-V). There are plenty of resources available on the web that provide you with this information.  Also, Virtual PC and VMWare Server are available for free (you need only provide the operating systems you would like to install).