If you are old enough to remember 8″ floppy disks, punch cards and Selectric typewriters, the following InfoWorld article might be of great interest. Yes, we are a long way (almost 50 years!) from the aforementioned technologies, but not so far as to completely forget where much of the computing technology that we enjoy today, originated.
“Virtualization”, believe it or not, had its roots planted firmly in silicon by 1967 in the form of CP-40. CP-40 the first operating system that implemented complete virtualization, albeit at that time it was a machine-specific implementation and made available only to the computing-elite. Understandably so, the machine on which it ran (IBM System/360) was state-of-the-art at the time and could only be installed in a location with strict environment controls.
Enough with the history lesson! Fast-forward nearly 50 years, and virtualization stands to (re)make its mark in history.
A clear case of back to the future? I’m not entirely certain. As with anything computing, each person/company/market segment has its own unique computing needs. Even though they may not realize it, a lot of people could really take advantage of virtualization technologies. Others will be dead-set against it, be it for financial reasons or some other ulterior motive. For me personally, I fall in to the pro-virtualization category. Yes I realize that up-front costs for large-scale projects can be prohibitive, but, being the forward-thinking person that I am, I know that benefits will eventually outweigh costs.
I tend to view virtualization as a friend due to my work in the field of anti-virus research. In 1993, when I was in the midst of developing Symantec’s very first automated infection system, the biggest hurdle I had to step over (or skirt around) was that of restoring an infected computer back to a known-clean state. Logistically it wasn’t a difficult task to achieve, but doing so represented what the computer was doing the majority of its computing cycles — cleaning itself up. If only I had a method of restoring a machine to a pristine state simply by hitting the reset button! Instead of producing daughter/granddaughter/etc. infections for 10 viruses every 8 hours, virtualization would have allowed for far greater efficiency.
What can virtualization do for the everyday computer user? Besides the many advantages it offers in relation to computer security, read the following InfoWorld article. If you think the technology has a place in your company, realize that virtualization is a more accessible (and cheaper) than you might think. If after reading the article you have additional questions, as always please feel free to pick my brain.
http://www.infoworld.com/d/virtualization/what-desktop-virtualization-really-means-352