The next big thing...

[Jeff7181]

So I've been hearing some people speculating as to what the next big thing will be in the networking industry, and a couple people "in the know" seem to agree that virtualization is the next big thing (if not currently the biggest thing)... with the ability to test a client/server relationship on a single computer before deploying it. Thoughts?

 

[spikespiegal]

VMware is *hugely* popular on the corporate scene and growing. Given the rabid increases in processor firepower, dual cores, high performance SANs, along with plumetting RAM prices, it makes more sense for an IT dept to stick everything on one box and virtualize the platforms. I've been playing with VMware Server beta, and really like it.

The need for virtualization though only shows the problems we have with existing OS architecture, and the drastic need for better software compliance. When multiple operating system runs better on a single box than a single OS, then virtualization is only fixing problems with the native OS, of which there are too many to list.

 

[Jeff7181]

From what I've been told, one of the major benefits is in increased uptime. I guess if an OS install on a virtual server gets fubar and a reinstall would normally be necessary, correcting the problem is as simple as closing and restarting the program which takes significantly less time than even restoring an image from a backup.

 

[FreshPrince]

vmotion with vmware is awesome, give it a try.

if you don't have a SAN though...it will not work.

 

[spikespiegal]

I hear there is a OSX wrapper for VMware, but of course it's not officially supported by anybody who doesnt' want to get sued.

Gotta try it when I have time.

 

[Jeff7181]

Is there any performance hit? Obviously the guest OS's will have to share resources... but if the host OS is basically idle, just running the VM, will the guest OS perform the same as it would if it was a standalone installation?