It's easy to get lost in the world of virtualization. After all, the word is increasingly being applied to all sorts of situations and applications.

Recognizing the problem, Daniel Kusnetzky of the 451 Group has created an accessible framework that sorts out the various layers of virtualization that deserve our consideration. Each level of the model represents a different opportunity to implement virtualization.

According to Kusnetzky, virtualization can be applied to address "performance, reliability/availability, scalability, consolidation, agility, a unified management domain or some other goal." As he explains, each level offers different benefits:

• Access Virtualization — hardware and software technology enabling just about any device to access just about any application. While the application can see the device, the device knows how to display it. Special purpose hardware may be necessary on each side of the network connection to enhance performance, enabling many users to share a single client system or allowing a single individual to see multiple displays.


• Application Virtualization — software technology enabling applications to run on many different operating systems and hardware platforms. This usually means that the application has been written to use an application framework. It also means that applications running on the same system that do not use this framework do not get the benefits of application virtualization.


• Processing Virtualization — hardware and software technology that hides physical hardware configuration from system services, operating systems or applications. This type of virtualization technology can make one system appear to be many or many systems appear to be a single computing resource to achieve goals ranging from raw performance, high levels of scalability, reliability/availability, agility or consolidation of multiple environments onto a single system.


• Storage Virtualization — hardware and software technology that hides where storage systems are and what type of device is actually storing applications and data. This technology also makes it possible for many systems to share the same storage devices without knowing that others are also accessing them.


• Network Virtualization — hardware and software technology that presents a view of the network that differs from the physical view. So, a personal computer may be allowed to only “see” systems it is allowed to access.


• Management of virtualized environments — software technology that makes it possible for multiple systems to be provisioned and managed as if they were a single computing resource.

While these technologies have been available in various forms for almost three decades, they are now widely available for industry-standard applications. Such availability is clearly contributing to the ongoing wave of virtualization that is transforming IT.

It's easy to get lost in the world of virtualization. After all, the word is increasingly being applied to all sorts of situations and applications.

Recognizing the problem, Daniel Kusnetzky of the 451 Group has created an accessible framework that sorts out the various layers of virtualization that deserve our consideration. Each level of the model represents a different opportunity to implement virtualization.

According to Kusnetzky, virtualization can be applied to address "performance, reliability/availability, scalability, consolidation, agility, a unified management domain or some other goal." As he explains, each level offers different benefits:

• Access Virtualization — hardware and software technology enabling just about any device to access just about any application. While the application can see the device, the device knows how to display it. Special purpose hardware may be necessary on each side of the network connection to enhance performance, enabling many users to share a single client system or allowing a single individual to see multiple displays.


• Application Virtualization — software technology enabling applications to run on many different operating systems and hardware platforms. This usually means that the application has been written to use an application framework. It also means that applications running on the same system that do not use this framework do not get the benefits of application virtualization.


• Processing Virtualization — hardware and software technology that hides physical hardware configuration from system services, operating systems or applications. This type of virtualization technology can make one system appear to be many or many systems appear to be a single computing resource to achieve goals ranging from raw performance, high levels of scalability, reliability/availability, agility or consolidation of multiple environments onto a single system.


• Storage Virtualization — hardware and software technology that hides where storage systems are and what type of device is actually storing applications and data. This technology also makes it possible for many systems to share the same storage devices without knowing that others are also accessing them.


• Network Virtualization — hardware and software technology that presents a view of the network that differs from the physical view. So, a personal computer may be allowed to only “see” systems it is allowed to access.


• Management of virtualized environments — software technology that makes it possible for multiple systems to be provisioned and managed as if they were a single computing resource.

While these technologies have been available in various forms for almost three decades, they are now widely available for industry-standard applications. Such availability is clearly contributing to the ongoing wave of virtualization that is transforming IT.