Editor’s note: In this, the first of Peter H. Salus’s articles, he explains virtualization with an unusual metaphor, puts it in historical context, and suggests some often-overlooked benefits.

Virtualization is a hot topic in IT circles right now, but it's often misunderstood by many in the higher education community. The term is broad, so we’ll break it down and demystify the topic.

A term that I've been hearing more frequently in the past few months is "desktop virtualization." What does that mean anyway? It seems to me that this could be the use of any one of several different ...

Server virtualization, have you ever heard of it? You’d be surprised how important it is and how much it is used around the world. Now, since not a lot of people have knowledge of server ...

Virtualization will become dominant in enterprises, but the security risks are fuzzy at best. Meanwhile, the usual defense--firewalls, security appliances and such aren't ready for virtualization.

As a processor guy, I mostly cover the low-level hardware aspects of virtualization. But through my writing on the topic, I end up coming into contact with a wide variety of folks who either work for ...

Virtualization and cloud computing have been billed as the next wave for enterprise computing. Taken together these approaches can save a corporation big bucks, improve efficiency through better ...

A primer on virtual computing, and how it may affect your investments. Virtualization is perhaps the hottest high-tech buzzword around these days. But what exactly is it -- and how does the whole ...