Virtualisation
What is Virtualisation?
Virtualisation is a proven software technology that is rapidly transforming the IT landscape and fundamentally changing the way that people compute. While others are leaping aboard the virtualisation bandwagon now, VMware is the market leader in virtualisation. VMware technology is production-proven, used by more than 120,000 customers, including 100% of the Fortune 100.
A virtual server is a tightly isolated software container that can run its own operating systems and applications as if it were a physical computer. A virtual server behaves exactly like a physical server and contains it own virtual (ie, software-based) CPU, RAM hard disk and network interface card (NIC).
An operating system can’t tell the difference between a virtual server and a physical sever, nor can applications or other computers on a network. Even the virtual server thinks it is a “real” computer. Nevertheless, a virtual server is composed entirely of software and contains no hardware components whatsoever. As a result, virtual servers offer a number of distinct advantages over physical hardware.
Virtual Server Benefits
In general, VMware virtual servers possess four key characteristics that benefit the user:
- Compatibility: Virtual servers are compatible with all standard x86 computers
- Isolation: Virtual servers are isolated from each other as if physically separated
- Encapsulation: Virtual severs encapsulate a complete computing environment
- Hardware independence: Virtual servers run independently of underlying hardware