Short for virtual machine monitor, in
virtualization technology it is the
host program that allows a computer to support multiple
and identical execution environments. The VMM provides the underpinnings for
virtualization management, which includes policy-based automation, virtual hard
disk, life cycle management, live migration and real-time resource allocation.
You can basically think of the VMM as the part of the code in
firmware that manages either multiple
operating systems or multiple instances of
the same operating system on a single computer system. Its job is to manage the
system's processor, memory
and other resources to allocate what each operating system requires. VMMs
provide the means, through emulation, to divide a
single, physical server or blade, allowing multiple
operating systems to run securely on the same CPU and
increase the CPU utilization.
An Introduction to Virtualization The purpose of this document can be informally stated as follows: if you were to use virtualization in a an endeavor (research or otherwise), here are some things to look at.
Swainson: Virtualization Everywhere in 5 Years The computing resources that make the bedrock of IT will be virtualized over the next five years to alleviate the tangled Web of complexity in data centers.
Webopedia's Quick Reference: Virtualization: All About Hypervisors As virtualization — or at least talk of it — spreads through the enterprise, the word hypervisor is popping up everywhere. To understand what a hypervisor is, you first have to have a basic understanding of system virtualization.
