An Introduction to

Virtualization
by Sean Campbell and Michael Jeronimo

V irtualization is one of the more significant technologies to impact

computing in the last few years. With roots extending back several
decades, today its resurgence in popularity h as many industry analysts
predicting that its use will grow expansively in companies over the next
several years. Promising benefits such as consolidation of infrastructure,
lower costs, greater security, ease of management, better employee
productivity, and more, it s easy to see why virtua lization is poised to change
the landscape of computing.
But what exactly is virtualization? The term is used abundantly, and often
confusingly, throughout the computing industry. You ll quickly discover after
sifting through the literature that virtualization can take on different shades of
meaning depending on the type of solution or strategy being discussed and
whether the reference applies to memory, hardware, storage, operating
systems, or the like.

Virtualization Defined
Virtualization refers in this article to the process of decoupling the har dware
from the operating system on a physical machine. It turns what used to be
considered purely hardware into software. Put simply, you can think of
virtualization as essentially a computer within a computer, implemented in
software. This is true all the way down to the emulation of certain types of
devices, such as sound cards, CPUs, memory, and physical storage. An
instance of an operating system running in a virtua lized environment is known
as a virtual machine. Virtualization technol ogies allow multiple virtual
machines, with heterogeneous operating systems to run side by side and in
isolation on the same physical m achine. By emulating a complete hardware
system, from pro cessor to network card, each vi rtual machine can share a
common set of hardware unaware that this hardware may also be being used
by another virtual machine at the same time. The operating system running in
the virtual machine sees a consistent, normalized set of hardware regardless of
the actual physical hardware components. Technologies such as Intel ®
Virtualization Technology (Intel® VT), which will be reviewed later in this
article, significantly improves and enhances virtualization from the
perspective of the vendors that produce these sol utions.
With a working definition of virtualization on the table, here s a quick
mention of some of the other types of virtualization technology available
today. For example, computer memory virtualization is software that allows a
program to address a much larger amount of memory than is act ually
available. To accomplish this, you would generally swap units of address
space back and forth as needed between a storage device and vi rtual memory.
In computer storage manage ment, virtualization is the pooling of physical
storage from multiple network storage devices into what appears to be a
single storage device that is managed from a central co nsole. In an
environment using network virtualization, the virtual machine implem ents
virtual network adapters on a system with a host network adapter. But again
in the context of this book virtualization refers to the process of utilizing
virtual machines.

Terminology
Individual vendors often choose terminology that suits their marketing needs
to describe their products. Like the nuances of the virtualization technologies,
it s easy to get confused over the different terms used to describe features or
components. Hopefully as virtualization technology c ontinues to evolve and
as more players enter the marketplace, a common set of terminology will
emerge. But for now, here is a list of terms and corresponding defin itions.

Host Machine
A host machine is the physical machine runn ing the virtualization sof tware. It
contains the physical resources, such as memory, hard disk space, and CPU,
and other resources, such as network access, that the virtual m achines utilize.

Virtual Machine
The virtual machi ne is the virtualized representation of a physical m achine
that is run and maintained by the virtualization software. Each vi rtual
machine, implemented as a single file or a small collection of files in a single
folder on the host system, behaves as if it is running on an ind ividual,
physical, non-virtualized PC.

Virtualization Software
Virtualization software is a generic t erm denoting software that allows a user
to run virtual m achines on a host machine.
Virtual Disk
The term refers to the virtual machine s physical representation on the disk of
the host machine. A virtual disk comprises either a singl e file or a collection
of related files. It appears to the virtual mac hine as a physical hard disk. One
of the benefits of using virtual machine architecture is its portability whereby
you can move virtual disk files from one physical machine to another with
limited impact on the files. Subsequent chapters illustrate various ways in
which this can be a significant benefit across a wide var iety of areas.

Virtual Machine Additions

Virtual machine additions increase the performance of the guest ope rating
system when compared to running without the additions, provide access to
USB devices and other specialized devices, and, in some cases, to higher
video resolutions than without the additions, thus offering an i mproved user
interface experience within a virtual machine. The additions also allow the
use of customizations such as shared folders, drag -and-drop copy and paste
between the host and virtual machines and between virtual machines, and
other enhancements.
One particularly useful enhancement is the ability of the mouse pointer s
focus to naturally move from the virtual machine window to the host
machine s active application windows without having to phys ically adjust it
each time the window changes. This allows you to interact with the
virtualized operating system as if it were nothing more than a nother
application window, such as a word processing program running on the host
machine.

Shared Folders
Most virtual machine implementations support the use of shared folders. After
the installation of virtual machine additions, shared folders enables the virtual
machine to access data on the host. Through a series of under -the-cover drive
mappings the virtual machine can open up files and fol ders on the physical
host machine. You then can transfer these files from the physical machine to a
virtual machine using a standard mechanism such as a mapped drive.
Shared folders can access install ation files for programs, data files, or
other files that you need to copy and load into the virtual machine. With
shared folders you don t have to copy data files into each virtual m achine.
Instead, all of your virtual machines access the sa me files through a shared
folder that targets a single endpoint on the physical host m achine.

Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM)

A virtual machine monitor is the software solution that implements
virtualization to run in conjunction with the host operating system. The vi rtual
machine monitor virtualizes certain hardware resources, such as the CPU,
memory, and physical disk, and creates emulated devices for virtual machines
 running on the host machine. An overview of emulated devices is presented
later in this chapter. For now, it is important to understand that the virtual
machine monitor determines how resources should be allocated, virtualized,
and presented to the virtual machines runn ing on the host computer. Many
software solutions that exist today utilize this metho d of virtualization. Figure
1 illustrates the concept of the virtual machine monitor.

Figure 1 Virtual Machine Monitor Architecture

Hypervisor
In contrast to the virtual machine monitor, a hypervisor runs directly on the
physical hardware. The hypervisor runs directly on the hardware without any
intervening help from the host operating system to provide access to hardware
resources. The hypervisor is directly responsible for hosting and mana ging
virtual machines running on the host machine. However, the impl ementation
of the hypervisor and its overall benefits vary widely across vendors.
Figure 2 Hypervisor Architecture Overview

Paravirtualization
Paravirtuali zation involves modifying the operating system before it can be
allowed to run in the virtualized environment as a virtual machine. Thus its
use requires an open source operating system whose source is publicly
available.

Virtual Machine Isolation

While not strictly a technical term, the concept of virtual machine isol ation is
important to understand . Virtual machines are essentially isolated from one
another in the same way that two physical machines would be on the same
network. A virtual machine s running operating system has no knowledge of
other virtual machines running on the same machine. In some cases, the
operating system itself has no way of knowing that it is running in a
virtualized environment either.

History of Virtualization
Before we place a foot firmly into the realm of virtualizat ion technologies that
exist today, it s worthwhile to take a step back into history to e xplore the
origin of virtualization within the mainframe environment. This is important
because virtualization in its current incarnation is not a completely new
technology and has roots in some past efforts.
From the 1950s to the 1990s
The concept of virtual memory dates to the late 1950s when a group at the
University of Manchester introduced automatic page replacement in the Atlas
system, a transistorized mainframe co mputer. The principle of paging as a
method to store and transmit data up and down the memory hierarchy already
existed but the Atlas was the first to automate the process, thereby providing
the first working prototype of virtual me mory.
The term virtual machine dates to the 1960s. One of the earliest vi rtual
machine systems comes from IBM. Around 1967, IBM introduced the
System/360 model 67, its first major system with virtual me mory. Integral to
the model 67 was the concept of a self -virtualizing processor instruction set,
perfected in later models. The model 67 used a very early operating system
called CP-67, which evolved into the virtual machine (VM) operating
systems. VM allowed users to run several operating systems on a single
processor machine. Essentially VM and the mainframe hardware cooperated
so that multiple instances of any operating system, each with protected access
to the full instruction set, could concurrently coexist.
In the mid 1960s IBM also pioneered the M44/44X p roject, exploring the
emerging concept of time sharing. At the core of the system archite cture was
a set of virtual machines, one for each user. The main machine was an IBM
7044 (M44 for short) and each virtual machine was an e xperimental image of
the 7044 (44X for short). This work eventually led to the widely -used
VM/timesharing systems, including IBM s well-known VM/370.
The concept of hardware virtualization also emerged during this time,
allowing the virtual machine monitor to run virtual machines in an isolated
and protected environment. Because the virtual machine mon itor is
transparent to the software running in the virtual machine, the software thinks
that it has exclusive control of the hardware. The co ncept was perfected over
time so that eventually virtual machine monitors could function with only
small performance and resource overhead.
By the mid 1970s, virtualization was well accepted by users of various
operating systems. The use of virtualization during these decades solved
important problems. For example, the emergence of virtual storage in large-
scale operating systems gave programs the illusion that they could address far
more main storage (memory) t han the machine actually contained. Virtual
storage expanded system capacity and made pr ogramming less complex and
much more productive.
Also, unlike virtual resources, real system resources were extremely
expensive. Virtual machines presented an efficient way to gain the maximum
benefit from what was then a sizable investment in a co mpany's data center.
Although hardware -level virtual machines were popular in both the
research and commercial marketplace during the 1960s and 1970s, they
essentially disappeared during the 1980s and 1990s. The need for
virtualization, in general, declined when low-cost minicomputers and personal
computers came on the market.
 Although not the focus of this article , another type of virtual m achine,
Sun Microsystems Java Virtual M achine (JVM) and Microsoft s Common
Language Runtime (CLR), deserve a place on the historical timeline and are
worth mentioning here. The key thing to understand though is that these
machines do not present a virtual hardware platform. But due to the poten tial
confusion between this type of virtual machine and the vi rtual machines
covered in this article a brief overview is in order to clear up these
differences. These virtual machines emerged during the 1990s and extended
the use of virtual machines into othe r areas, such as sof tware development.
Referred to as simulated or abstracted machines, they are implemented in
software on top of a real hardware platform and o perating system. Their
beauty lies in their portability. In the case of JVM, compiled Java pro grams
can run on compatible Java virtual machines regardless of the type of machine
underneath the implementation.
Figure 1.3 outlines the relationship between a JVM or the CLR and the
host operating system.

Figure 3 Runtime Virtual Machines

The Reemergence of Virtualization

The 1990s saw an explosion in the number of servers used throughout the
enterprise. However, while their numbers continued to grow , many were
underutilized in the workplace. Placing more than one appl ication on a single
server often was not a viable option even though that one a pplication might
use only a fraction of the server s available resources. Server proliferation
presented deployment, update, and support cha llenges as well as issu es with
security and disaster recovery. Organizations soon realized that while waste
and costs were escalating, productivity and efficiency were plummeting. The
question became, how do we consolidate our servers? The answer was to
use virtualization technology.
While the past several years have seen the re -emergence of virtualization,
vendors have faced significant complications in developing the software to
allow others to virtualize operating systems and applications. The advent of
Intel VT has removed or significantly reduced some of these complications.
Intel recognized the re-emergence of virtualization and began working with
VMM developers, implementing hardware assists in Intel processors and
chipsets, and driving specifications to improve virtualiz ation in the future.

Challenges with the IA-32 Architecture and

Software-Only Virtualization Solutions
So far the landscape of virtualization seems to be trouble free. But there is a
crucial problem and th at concerns the original IA -32 architecture. It wasn't
designed for virtualization. Intel processors were designed primarily to run a
single instance of the operating system. So on systems that use Intel
architecture, virtualization is presently a software -only solution. Here is a
look at the problem and the various approaches used to solve the pro blem
before the benefit of using Intel VT became available.

IA-32 Architecture and Privilege Levels

Intel processors provide protection based on various rings or privilege levels,
numbered 0, 1, 2, and 3. The privilege level, 0 being the highest, determines
what actions a specific process can perform. For example, memory mapping
can be executed only in privilege level 0. In contrast, end -user applications
run in pr ivilege level 3. Software running in a lower -numbered privilege level
can exercise control over software ru nning at a higher -numbered privilege
level. Most IA-32 software uses only privilege le vels 0 and 3.
Some of an operating system s components must run at privilege level 0
in order to have unlimited access to the underlying CPU. Similarly, in a
virtualized system the virtual machine monitor (VMM) must ring in privilege
level 0. The VMM must also create the illusion to the guest operating system
that it, too, is running in ring 0. But the VMM cannot a llow a guest operating
system such control because doing so might mo dify the VMM s code and
data or give the guest operating system access to privileged instru ctions.
Before the availability of virtualization software, privilege levels would
have been of little concern. To get around the conflict with priv ilege levels,
the virtualization software relocates the guest operating sy stem to another
ring a technique known as ring deprivileging. Deprivileging is
accomplished using one of two models. If the system uses the ring 0/1/3
model, the virtualization software deprivileges the guest operating system to
privilege level 1. This allows the guest operating system to properly control
its applications by locating the m in privilege level 3. In the 0/3/3 model the
guest operating system is moved to privilege level 3 where it runs at the same
privilege level as its applications. With either model, the VMM has privilege
level 0 all to itself.
Unfortunately, deprivileging creates a new set of virtualization
challenges. The VMM must constantly monitor the activities of the guest
operating systems to trap attempts to access the hardware and certain system
calls. It must execute these calls itself and emulate the results. For example,
when software runs at a privilege level other than the one for which it was
written, as in the case with the guest operating system, a problem referred to
as ring aliasing can arise. Certain instruction calls authorized for use outside
privilege level 0 can return a value that co ntains the current privilege level.
The guest operating system is able to read the return value and determine that
it is not running at privilege level 0. A conflict within the guest operating
system could develop. However, since the call is a valid operation for an
application running at privilege levels greater than 0, the VMM is unable to
detect and provide the proper fix for this oper ation.
Another problem arises when the guest operating system, thinking it has
control of the state of the CPU, makes a valid request for the state of the CPU.
The CPU state returned is the true state of the CPU controlled by the VMM,
not the simulated CPU state of the guest operating system. These values are in
conflict and could cause exec ution failure.
The VMM that is in charge of the CPU must switch the context of the
guest operating system process. A guest operating system is not gene rally
written to support context switching and may store important data in hidden
locations. When the VMM attempts to save the context, this i nformation can
be lost. Restoring the complete context of the guest ope rating system would
not be possible and the guest operating system would produce an execution
failure. There are numerous other scenarios with advers e impacts.

Addressing the Virtualization Challenges

To address the virtualization challenges, designers of virtual machine
monitors have developed two approaches: Paravirtualization and binary
translation.

Paravirtualization
Briefly discussed earlier, this solution requires changes to the source code of
the guest operating system, especially the kernel, so that it can be run on the
specific VMM. Paravirtualization can be used only with operating systems
that can be modified, such as Linux.

Binary Translation (or Patching)

With this approach the VMM makes changes to the binaries of the guest
operating system as it is loaded into the virtual machine. This on -the-fly
solution extends the range of operating systems that can be su pported as the
operating system does not need to be modified to support this a pproach but
comes with higher performance overhead than VMMs that use
paravirtualization. This approach also requires a greater effort in some ways
on the part of the designer of the VMM.
Intel® Virtualization Technology (Intel ® VT) Solving the
Privilege Problem
Intel Virtualization Technology, a series of ha rdware -based processor and
chipset innovations, delivers support to address some of the problems with
software-only solutions. It enables VMMs to run off -the-shelf operating
systems and appl ications and allows guest software to run at its intended
privilege level, thereby eliminating the need for paravirtualization and b inary
translation. Intel VT includes VT-x support for IA -32 processor virtualization
and VT-i support for the Itanium ® architecture. Here is a high -level look at the
extensions to the IA-32 architecture.

Virtual Machine Extensions (VMX) Operations

VT-x augments the current IA -32 architecture with a new mode of CPU
operation: VMX, which stands for virtual machine extensions. The VMM
runs in VMX root operating level, which is fully privileged. Guest operating
systems run in VMX non-root operating level. The key point is that both
forms of operation support all four ring levels. The guest operating systems
run within their expected ring levels and each thinks it controls the CPU; that
is, the entire machine. The guest operating system in co nstrained, however,
not by privilege level, but because it runs in VMX non -root operating level.
Two transitions are associated with VMX. These commands assoc iated
with these transitions pass control back and f orth between the VMM and the
guest operation systems:
VM entry VMM- to-guest transition, which enters VMX non -root
operations
VM exit guest-to-VMM transition, which enters VMX root
operations.
With the VM entry command, the guest operating system can exe cute VMX
non-root operations. When the guest operating system passes co ntrol back to
the VMM with the VM exit command, the VMM returns executing its
privileged VMX root operations again. The virtual machine control structure
is a new data structure that ma nages VM entries and VM exits.

Virtual Machine Benefits

Reducing hardware and software needs, improving performance and
scalabil ity, and reducing downtime are key factors in managing costs in
today s co mpanies. Virtual machines provide the means for companies to
achieve these goals. Here is a brief overview of the benefits you can e xpect to
gain using virtual machines. These benefi ts will be covered in depth later in
this book in richer scenarios as well as in the context of other sc enarios.
Virtual machines allow more efficient use of resources by
consolidating multiple operating environments on underutilized
servers onto a smaller number of virtualized servers.
Virtual machines make the manageability of systems easier. For
example, you do not need to shut down servers to add more memory
or upgrade a CPU.
The complexity of overall administration is reduced because each
virtual mach ine s software environment is independent from the
underlying physical server e nvironment.
The environment of a virtual machine is completely isolated from the
host machine and the environments of other virtual machines so you
can build out highly-secure environments that are tailored to your
specifications. For example, you can configure a di fferent security
setting for each virtual machine. Also, any attempt by a user to
interfere with the system would be foiled because one virtual
environment cannot access another unless the virtualization stack
allows this. Ot herwise, it restricts access entirely.
You can migrate old operating systems for which it is difficult to
obtain appropriate underlying hardware for a physical machine.
Along these same lines, you can run old software that has not been, or
cannot be, ported to newer platforms.
You can run multiple, different operating systems from different
vendors simultaneously on a single piece of hardware.
Because virtual machines are encapsulated into files you can easily
save and copy a virtual machine. You can quickly move fully
configured systems from one physical server to another.
Virtualization allows you to deliver a pre -configured environment for
internal or external deployment scenarios.
Virtual machines allow for powerful debugging and performance
monitoring. Operating systems can be debugged without losing
productivity and without having to set up a more complicated
debugging environment.
The virtual machine provides a compatible abstraction so that a ll
software written for it will run on it. For example, a hardware -level
virtual machine will run all the software, operating systems, and
applications wri tten for the hardware. Similarly, an operating system
level virtual machine will run applications for that pa rticular
operating system, and a high -level virtual machine will run programs
written in the high-level language.
Because virtual machines can isolate what they run, they can pr ovide
fault and error containment. You can insert faults proactively i nto
software to study its subsequent behavior. You can save the state,
examine it, modify it, reload it, and so on. In addition to this type of
 isolation, the virtualization layer can execute performance isolation so
that resources consumed by one virtual machine do not necessarily
affect the performance of other virtual m achines.

Multi-Core Technologies and Virtualization

Technologies
One of the primary applications of virtualization technology involves running
more than one operating system at the same time on one physical machine.
Multiple operating systems are, in particular , necessary in development and
testing situations where engineers must develop software simultaneously on
different operating systems. They are also very common in IT scenarios
where legacy operating systems need to run side by side with more modern
systems. However with virtualization technology, an installed operating
system such as Microsoft Windows is not designed to share hardware
resources, such as processor, memory, disk space, network, and video, with
other operating systems running at the same ti me on the same physical
machine. To sidestep this constraint, the user had to, prior to the advent of
virtualization, dual -boot (or tri-boot, and so on) the machine between the
different operating systems such as Wi ndows XP and Linux .
Dual booting gives the user the flexibility of using multiple operating
systems but at the significant disadvantage of having to shut down one
operating system completely before using another. In order to share core data
files and documents, the user must store them in a l ocation available to each
operating system regardless of which one is currently booted and in active
use, which further reduces productivity and increases comple xity. While this
is viable in some contexts it slows down the process of i nteracting with the
host machine and in some contexts is simply not a viable solution as will be
outlined in later chapters. In addition proces sing power must be wholly
applied to the execution of one operating sy stem or other and cannot be easily
split across all the operating systems you might want to run concurrently on
the same machine. Virtualization makes it possible to remove all of these
limitations.
By contrast, each virtualized operating system takes a portion of available
resources such as CPU, memory, and physical di sk and uses them for its own
user-specified tasks. However, sharing the same phys ical resources that
previously would have been dedicated to one physical machine comes at a
cost. The host machine that is running these virtua lized operating systems
must have more resources than were previously allocated to a single m achine.
A possible solution to this dilemma may lie in the emergence of increased
processing power. With today s emphasis on multiple core arch itecture and
Hyper-Threading Technology, these proce ssors can be best utilized when
placed in an environment where virtualization is in heavy use. The additional
core(s) these processors provide can be dedicated to individual virtualized
operating systems to allow the optimum scale out of resources. Additio nal
 benefits such as separating defined user tasks into given virtualized operating
systems can allow for more secure or hardened dedicated virtualized
operating systems all operating on the same piece of physical hardware. The
use of virtualization makes it possible to take full advantage of new processor
architectures and proce ssors that go from dual -core to quad-core, eight-core,
and beyond.

Hardware Utilization Possible Performance

Impacts
Virtualizing your infrastructure or even a small number of machines can have
enormous benefits, but it can also affect the performance of your server,
workstation, or mobile machine hardware even with adva nces such as multi -
core processors. It is important to understand some of the trad eoffs that occur
at the hardware level with virtualization. This section outlines them on a
component-by-component basis.
Physical RAM, CPU, hard disk space, a nd networking all play a role in
determining whether a host machine is prepared to run a virtual m achine-
based application. Properly preparing your host machines prior to running
virtual machines on them will help you achieve better stability, scalability and
long-term performance for your virtual machines. When selecting a host,
you ll need to ensure that it meets the virtual machine application s minimum
hardware requirements and further that enough resources, parti cularly
memory, are available for the number of virtual machines you want to run
simultaneously on the host.
Here is a breakdown of the various hardware components that are the
usual bottlenecks and what can be done to prevent them.

CPU
The CPU is one of the more significant bottlenecks in the system when
running multiple virtual machines. All of the operating systems that are
running on the host in a virtual machine are competing for access to the CPU.
An effective solution to this problem is to use a mul ti-processor or, better, a
multi-core machine where you can dedicate a core or more to a virtual
machine. The technology to assign a given core to a virtual m achine image is
not yet fully provided by current virtualization vendors but is expected to be
available in the near future. In the absence of a multi -core processor, the next
best step is to find the fastest processor available to meet your needs.

Memory
Memory also can be a significant bottleneck but its effect can be mit igated, in
part, by selecting the best vendor for your virtualization solution because
various vendors handle memory utilization differently.
 Regardless of the vendor you chose, you must have a significant amount
of memory one that is roughly equivalent to the amount you would have
assigned to each machine if they were t o run as a physical machine. For
example, to run Windows XP Professional on a virtual m achine, you might
allocate 256 megabytes (MB) of memory. This is on top of the 256 MB
recommended for the host computer, assuming Windows XP is the host.
This can mean in many cases that a base machine configuration comes out
to approximately 1 2 gigabytes (GB) of memory or perhaps many more
gigabytes for a server -based virtualization solution.
You can easily change memory configuration for a guest operating system
that is virtualized. Typically this change is done from within the virtualization
software itself and requires only a shutdown and restart c ycle of the virtual
machine to take effect. Contrast this process with the requirement to manually
install memory on each physical machine and you can see one of the benefits
of virtualization technology.

Physical Disk
When it comes to virtua lization, overall disk space utilization for each virtual
machine isn t as great a concern as is the intelligent utilization of each
physical drive. An additional important point to consider is the rotational
speed of the drive in use. Because you may utilize multiple virtual machines
on a single drive the rotational speed of the drive can have a dramatic affect
on performance with greater drive speeds. For the best performance across
most of the virtualization products today, consider implementing mult iple
disk drives and using the fastest drive poss ible, in terms of its rotation speed,
for each drive.
One way to boost performance of a virtualized solution beyond just
having a faster drive is to ensure that the host machine and its associated
operating system have a dedicated physical hard drive, and that all virtual
machines or potentially each virtual machine has a separate physical hard disk
allocated to it.

Network
Network utilization can also present bottleneck issues, similar to those with
memory. Even though the virtual machine doesn t add any signif icant amount
of network latency into the equation, the host machine must have the capacity
to service the network needs of all of the running virtual machines on the host
machine. However as with memory you still need to appl y the appropriate
amount of network bandwidth and ne twork resources that you would have if
the machines were running on separate physical hardware.
You might need to upgrade your network card if you are running multiple
virtual machines in an IT environment and all machines are e xperiencing
heavy concurrent network traffic. But in most desktop virtua lization scenarios
you will find that the network is not the problem. Most likely the culprit is the
CPU, disk, or memory.
 Conclusion
Virtualization technology, while not new, is growing at a significant rate in its
use on servers and desktop machines and long ago lost its conne ction to
mainframe systems alone. While challenges do exist, such as the unification
of terminology, the development of even more robust software solutions, and
the implementation of greater device virtualization support, virtualization is
still poised to make a significant impact on the landscape of computing over
the next few years.

For more information about virtualization and Intel VT , please refer to the book
Applied Virtualization Technology by Sean Campbell and Michael Jeronimo.

About the Authors

Sean Campbell has been a consultant working with Microsoft and Intel®
technologies for more than a decade, specializing in custom application development
and solutions for emerging and mainstream technologies.
Over his 20-year software career, Michael Jeronimo has been a developer, architect,
and a staff software architect for Intel Corporation , where he developed concepts and
projects for Intel's Digital Home effort and developed Internet security technology.

Copyright © 2006 Intel Corporation. All rights reserved.

This article is based on material found in book Applied Virtualization
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