What is virtualization? Wikipedia describes it as In computing, virtualization is a broad term that refers to the abstraction of computer resources. One useful definition is “a technique for hiding the physical characteristics of computing resources from the way in which other systems, applications, or end users interact with those resources. This includes making a single physical resource (such as a server, an operating system, an application, or storage device) appear to function as multiple logical resources; or it can include making multiple physical resources (such as storage devices or servers) appear as a single logical resource.”[1]
Simply put, one machine can run multiple independant operating systems which to a user, computer, or network, appear to be “Bare Metal” servers. So why aren’t more vendors pushing this. There are 2 major reasons. The first one is fear. Very few people actually know what it takes to get this type of environment built properly for a business. This makes it difficult to implement! The other, larger reason is that since hardware is so powerful nowadays, you could probably consolidate that 20 server mess to 5 powerful physical servers running VMWARE ESX or VMWARE Server.