Introduction

It seems like a lifetime ago, 2005. That was the year that I tried to convince my boss to use VMware GSX Server on our new DL385 and thus the start of my journey delving into the depths of virtualization. The world of information technology (IT) has definitely shifted a couple of times since then. The two most obvious changes are the proliferation of virtualization and the subsequent widespread adoption of cloud computing.

Virtualization—especially server virtualization—is readily embraced in datacenters worldwide. VMware has gone from being a relatively small vendor to having the commanding share of the server virtualization market. Over the years, other companies such as Microsoft, Red Hat, and Citrix have jumped into the server virtualization space, but after all this time, it's still VMware that's synonymous with virtualization. For all intents and purposes, VMware invented the market.

Cloud Computing is a somewhat natural evolution of virtualization...