Glossary

Server virtualization is a generalized term describing the ability to host multiple complete OS images (including or excluding a kernel) on a single hardware platform. Both OS virtualization and hardware virtualization technologies result in the creation of a virtual server. The way that the OS interacts with the hardware platform is modified so that multiple OS instances can share the underlying hardware platform. Server virtualization is often used to consolidate multiple smaller (or older) servers onto a single, large server, without changing how the applications or OS is managed.

Storage virtualization is the abstraction of the physical storage from the logical storage. While the actual physical storage may include several separate storage devices of different capacity and performance, storage virtualization presents a single logical storage entity. This means that the Storage Area Network (SAN) may consist of storage pools and storage devices in different locations at the physical level, but the user would see a single (often very large) storage entity, which can, from the user perspective, be managed centrally as well.