this is the "invisible" test, very well-known and time-honored.

if a technology is truly compelling, it proceeds rapidly from [1] bleeding-edge ideation, through [2] evaluation, [3] pilot, [4] adoption, [5] standardization, and [6] commoditization, to [7] ubiquity, and thus becomes invisible, because it is present in every case. at that point, it becomes necessary to specify when the technology is NOT present, otherwise everyone assumes that the technology is active.

to give a good example from the management field, when i was in college, TQM (Total Quality Management) was a hot new methodology. just a few years later, if it was mentioned at all, people had to look it up, then nod and say, "oh, yes, of course we do that..."

it was an obvious, effective concept, that went from [1] to [7] in a very short time; now, almost no one remembers what the original term was.

if virtualization is truly a compelling technology, it will "vanish" in a comparably short time. of course, the idea is something of a late bloomer, considering it was first implemented in the Mainframe Age (late Cretaceous? i am old...); still, i think the commentator is right, and technological ubiquity is indeed imminent.

"if virtualization is truly a compelling technology, it will "vanish" in a comparably short time. of course, the idea is something of a late bloomer, considering it was first implemented in the Mainframe Age (late Cretaceous? i am old...); still, i think the commentator is right, and technological ubiquity is indeed imminent."

Strange that you don't realise that it "vanished" years ago, so that its Stealth could become ubiquitous and exclusive before the mainstream "discovered" it.

And yes, there is absolutely no doubt that virtualization is truly a compelling technology which is why it will "vanish" for it is the defacto Control parameter for Real scenarios, putting as it does, ITs Leverage into a Virtual Cloud.

From there, IT can do exactly as ITs Controller[s] wishes/wish.

Virtual Untouchables? You can bet your shirt on that Inconvenient Truth if you Realise IT as AI Global Operating Device Sender.

And although you cannot buy it to own it, you can buy into it to exercise ITs Controls for they reach dDeep into every Market.

Sooner or later virtualization will become just another checkbox, a core part of all OS's.

What we really need is a standard API for managing all these OS instances.

And not on the OS level, but on the hardware level with VMware ESX 3i.

VM /370 the first commercial manifestation of virtualization? Sounds rather wrong to me, I seem to recall the both Burroughs and ICL had virtual machines well before VM/370 saw the light of day.