The race for virtualization dominance between Microsoft and VMware has become more interesting with VMware's recent release of vSphere 5.1. We obtained vSphere around the same moment as the final release of Windows Server 2012, whose newly included virtual switch and enhanced Hyper-V features were designed to clobber VMware.
But back in the garages of their digital "brickyard", VMware was scheming to one-up the one-ups.
Every business, from small local companies to global corporations, wants high-performance and low-cost when it comes to its IT operations. So when the use of virtualised environments became substantially cheaper around the mid-point of the last decade, organisations of all nature and size jumped at the chance to unburden their physical servers and build virtualised networks to support the running of their business. When Forrester Research recently surveyed a range of companies on the matter, 85 per cent had adopted, or were planning to adopt virtual systems.
Automatic teller machine maker Diebold has taken a novel approach to protecting bank customer data: virtualization. Virtualized ATMs store all customer data on central servers, rather than the ATM itself, making it difficult for criminals to steal data from the machines.
Last last week VMware released Fusion 4.1 an update to its popular virtualization software that adds many improvements and bug fixes. The biggest improvement is the applications ability to run older versions of Mac OS X Leopard and Snow Leopard.
I’ve known for a long time that Fusion can support Mac OS X Leopard or Snow Leopard virtual machines, but Apple’s licensing prohibits this.
The virtualization story for Mac OS X is about to change dramatically, and for the better, as Lion's licensing changes the rules for virtual machines.
