Virtualization 101: Virtualization concepts

SOURCE: Network World

Virtual machines (VM) can be used for more than consolidation. Software appliances can be used to package and deliver solutions on top of VMs. Gartner analyst Phillip Dawson said a server software appliance hides complexity beneath an application-specific management interface.

Delivered appliances can range from locked-down applications to preconfigured and preinstalled applications, as well as related middleware and management tools. Dawson said early server VM software appliances are mostly ready-to-run demos.

He said future appliances will move toward test/development scenarios that can be easily converted to production. Over the next 12 months Dawson said security standards will be developed and application vendors will test the waters by bundling applications and/or middleware on top of a hypervisor/OS combination.

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