CDW White Paper Sample

Virtualization has been deployed for several years by IT organizations, often to improve utilization and manageability of hardware, operating systems and even applications. It’s instructive to place storage virtualization in the context of these other widely accepted forms of virtualizing IT resources.

Hardware virtualization involves separating a computer’s memory into virtual machines that function as multiple systems within one physical computer. This can allow different operating systems to run on distinct “VMs” in the same computer. In the software realm, operating systems can be virtualized so that a version of an operating system can be supported in individual partitions of a system.

While the concepts of virtualization are commonly understood, there’s still some confusion about storage virtualization. Experts say that companies must understand the technology before jumping in aggressively.