the.com/virtualization
One machine pretends to be many, and none of them notice the lie.
means The technology that carves one physical computer into multiple independent virtual ones, each running as if it had the hardware entirely to itself.
from Built from 'virtual' — from Latin 'virtus' (power, capability) via medieval Latin 'virtualis,' meaning having the essence of something without the literal form. 'Virtual' entered physics and optics meaning 'in effect, though not technically' (a 'virtual image,' for instance). Computing picked that sense up in the mid-20th century for 'virtual memory,' where a system fakes more memory than it has — and 'virtualization' extended the trick to entire machines, letting one pretend convincingly to be many.
- origin
- IBM mainframes faked hardware for users since 1960s
- the trick
- hypervisor slices CPU time so guests feel alone
- cloud secret
- every rented server is a slice of someone else's box
- tradeoff
- flexibility costs a thin tax on raw speed