What is Virtualization? In Information Technology (IT) virtualization generally means the abstraction of a resource or hardware device. There are many different types of virtualization including:

• Hardware virtualization
• Application virtualization
• Storage virtualization

Hardware Virtualization- the process of abstracting a physical device in order to present a new logical group of resources. The most common implementation of this type is server virtualization. A physical server through the use of virtualization software is divided into available resources to be used by multiple virtual servers. The virtual servers are presented as a standard set of hardware that remains constant regardless of the physical server it is hosted on.

Application Virtualization- the applications are presented to the user as if they are installed on the users local computer, but are in fact installed on another server or within an isolation environment or bubble. There are a few different types or examples of this style of virtualization:

• Terminal Services / Citrix
• Streamed applications
• Isolation environments

Storage Virtualization- the logical group of multiple storage resources to present to the end user a new logical storage device. The end user of the storage is not aware of the exact physical location or nature of the storage.