This Fusion-io video (Whiteboarding With The Woz — Virtualization: The Basics) stars Apple co-founder and Fusion-io chief scientist Steve Wozniak explaining the little-understood concept of server virtualization. (Go ahead and click on that link to see why virtualization is little understood. It’s not really that complicated, but not exactly intuitive to the layperson, either.)
Server CPUs keep getting more powerful, but they can’t get enough data to keep them busy. So, as Woz explains it, an underutilized CPU is like a mansion with just one resident. The owner decides to rent out extra rooms to maximize use of the house — and that’s like virtualization. But the house has only one bathroom. So imagine the bottleneck when everyone tries to get ready in the morning….
And that’s where a Fusion-io sales pitch rounds out the video. It’s still a good, plain-language explanation of what server virtualization is all about up to that point.
