The History of Virtualization

THE HISTORY OF VIRTUALIZATION Virtualization has changed the way we do business. By consolidating hardware, decreasing costs, and introducing flexibility, it creates opportunities that weren't available even ten years ago. SO HOW DID WE GET HERE? 1966 THE TERM HYPERVISOR WAS USED FOR THE FIRST TIME. A hypervisor is software that creates and runs virtual machines. The word is a portmanteau of the prefix "hyper," meaning "above," and "supervisor," the primitive operating systems in use at the time. THE IBM CAMBRIDGE SCIENTIFIC CENTER DEVELOPS CP-40. 1967 CP-40 was the first OS to use complete virtualization. It supported 14 machines simultaneously. 1980S DESKTOP COMPUTING AND X86 SERVERS BECOME AVAILABLE. The development of desktop computing and x86 architecture changes the direction of computer development, requiring the development of new virtualization options. LOCUS COMPUTING CORPORATION RELEASES MERGE. 1987 MS US Merge, a rudimentary virtualization program, ran MS-DOS on a SCO-UNIX environment. 1990S HARDWARE AND RESOURCE DEMANDS INCREASE. IT administrators begin feeling the need for more robust virtualization options. 1997 CONNECTIX RELEASES VIRTUAL PC, OFFERING VIRTUALIZATION TO MAC USERS. VirtualPC is sold to Microsoft in 2003. The final version supporting Macs is released in 2006. 1999 UMWARE OPENS ITS DOORS AND LAUNCHES UMWARE WORKSTATION. While its grip is slipping some, one study shows that VMWare still commands 65% of the market. XEN IS RELEASED ASs THE FIRST OPEN SOURCE VIRTUALIZATION PLATFORM. 2003 Citrix Systems acquires Xen in 2007. Amazon and many other big companies use Xen. 2007 INNOTEK RELEASES VIRTUALBOX. VirtualBox is later acquired by Sun Microsystems, who is subsequently acquired by Oracle. MICROSOFT LAUNCHES HYPER-U. 2008 2013 INFORMATIONWEEK REPORTS THAT 64% OF BUSINESSES WITH OVER 50 EMPLOYEES ARE USING VIRTUALIZATION. Spiceworks reports that by the middle of 2013, as many as 79% of SMBS have virtualized. TYPES OF VIRTUALIZATION TODAY Hardware, Desktop, Software, Memory, Storage, Data and Network STORAGECRAFT. en.wikipedia.org infobarrel.com/History_of_Virtualization cloudtweaks.com/2012/12/the-history-of-virtualization/ vmblog.com/archive/2012/02/02/virtualization-history-has-an-impact-on-windows-server-backup.aspx#.UhYdtpK1F8E networkcomputing.com/virtualization/microsoft-others-closing-in-on-vmware-in/232901383 serverwatch.com/trends/article.php/3877576/Top-10-Virtualization-Technology-Companies.htm reports.informationweek.com/abstract/5/10475/Cloud-Computing/Research:-2013-State-Of-Cloud-Computing.html networkcomputing.com/virtualization/microsoft-others-closing-in-on-vmware-in/232901383 serverwatch.com/trends/article.php/3877576/Top-10-Virtualization-Technology-Companies.htm reports.informationweek.com/abstract/5/10475/Cloud-Computing/Research:-2013-State-Of-Cloud-Computing.html