Hi, I am fairly new to IT (i.e. graduate). I am looking to find out about virtualization and how it can be used etc... But i have no idea how it is implmentated or what use it would be?

I currently work for an insurance brokers and the only servers we have are for file/print and exchange server. As i am fresh out of uni i am wanting to get more into programming side of things and so i was told i could have my own development server to mess around with, but i think this would be a good oportunity to look at virtualization first before my equipment is gobbled up for something more serious like actual development hehe.

We are to receive some sql servers soon for our databases and i would like to start looking at ways we can integrating things.

Well feel free to bounce ideas around!

Thanks

Basically its handy because you could virtualise a number of servers (whole different OSes, in fact, each virtual instance would appear to the os as a whole diferent physical machine) and in this way, you can maximise your serer space. 1 rack server running 5 operating systems is very space efficient.

For development, I run a number of OSes in VMWare. That way, i can tinker with them as much as i want, and if they break, its not the end of the world.

So how would i go about setting up my own virtual machine? i would like to look at free versions. would VMWare be suitable for this?

try microsoft virtual pc or openbox. Both are free and offer more features than the free vmware version