IT loves virtualizing stuff, following the old rule that in computer science every problem can be solved by just one more level of indirection. Cloud computing is based on virtualization of compute resources - you don't need to know which machine your application is actually running on and you can get new ones with the click of a button. Before cloud was a buzzword, though, VMware and others have virtualized machines at the operating system levels. Recently (in terms of buzz, not technology), containers bring another level of light-weight virtualization of resources. And let's not forget the Java Virtual Machine, which also claims a level of virtualization. What are we supposed to do with all these levels of virtualization?
↧