It seems like everywhere you go these days, someone is talking about virtualization. Technical magazines trumpet the technology on their covers. Virtualization sessions are featured prominently at technology conferences. Even entire conferences, Webinars, and other events focused entirely on virtualization are not uncommon these days. If you have the feeling that everyone else in the world understands virtualization perfectly while you're trying to understand just what it is and how you might take advantage of it, take heart. Virtualization draws on pretty well-established technology, but certain combinations of conditions happening just now have brought it into new prominence. Virtualization is being widely applied today with excellent operational and financial results — but it's by no means universally used or understood.

The purpose of this book is to provide you with an introduction to the subject so that you can understand its promise and perils — and create an action plan to decide whether virtualization is right for you, as well as how to move forward with implementing it should you decide it is right for you. This book will help you sort out the hope from the hype and give you tools to feel confident in making your virtualization decisions.