Virtualization is no longer a trend, it’s a mainstream function expected on most server installations and most of us have used software on a client-server basis in the workplace, often without realising it, but is this a new phenomenon or is it something we’ve always had at our disposal? To answer the question properly, a distinction is needed to separate desktop virtualization from server virtualization.
Essentially, desktop virtualization is what a user sees when they use a thin client on workstation terminal. The main reason for desktop virtualization is to reduce costs, which would sky rocket if each terminal on a network needed its own processing power. The use of desktop virtualization is similar to server virtualization only in as much as they both reduce the need for redundant hardware or hardware that remains unused most of the time.
Server virtualization enables one powerful system to act as more than one server by attributing hardware to virtual machines on a shared system. This removes the need for costly installations of many servers at various locations on a network.
Virtualization from the Beginning
Desktop virtualization has always been around in business and was popular long before most of us were born. Mainframes provided terminal users access to system resources in the 70s and that was before desktops existed in their current form. The progression to point and click desktop virtualization took place almost as point and click was available for users on standalone terminals although it was left largely to Sun Microsystems running DOS on Macintosh systems that kept desktop virtualization popular in the 80s before they adopted UNIX.
It wasn’t until 1997 that we saw virtualization that would resemble anything like we know today. See modern virtualisation setups provided by Dell then take a look at Connectix’s first version of Virtual PC and you’ll see how far we’ve come in the last two decades. Virtual PC was a Windows XP virtualization package that work great at the time, but hardly compares to the networking capability of today’s setups.
Virtual Servers and Virtual Desktops Working Together
VMWare first filed a patent for its software in 1998, a year after Connectix released Virtual PC, but today VMware is often used alongside modern versions of Virtual PC, which comes bundled with server versions of Windows. Today, VMWare often provides one server with the ability to create virtual instances of many server deployments, which in turn provide end users with virtual desktops in networks all over the world.
Being part of the Dell team, I know we have a great range of virtualisation solutions available, which can be found on our site. Visit the site and browse the solutions on offer.
