Subscribe rss
You Define: Server Virtualization
brought to you by IBM Intel IBM Intel
  • Select a Category:
  • Your Definitions
  • Server Virtualization Conversation
  • Resources Center
What does server virtualization mean to you? Share your definition
  • Select a Category:
  • Your Definitions
  • Server Virtualization Conversation
  • Resources Center

ars.technica


Ars longa, vita brevis, occasio praeceps, experimentum periculosum, iudicium difficile.

—Hippocrates





When Hippocrates said that "life is short, art is long," he did not mean that art outlives the artist. The "father of medicine" instead diagnosed a basic fact of life: true art or skill takes a lifetime of effort to perfect, and the path is fraught with "occasional crises, perilous experiences, and difficult judgments." Technology is the "art" at the forefront of our changing world, and we're here to help it all, even the difficult judgments.

At Ars Technica—the name is Latin-derived for the "art of technology"—we specialize in original news and reviews, analysis of technology trends, and expert advice on topics ranging from the most fundamental aspects of technology to the many ways technology is helping us enjoy our world. We work for the reader who not only needs to keep up on technology, but is passionate about it.

We at Ars take great pride in our unique combination of technical savvy and wide-ranging interest in the human arts and sciences. Our editorial team is at home on Linux, Mac, and Windows; they know both the home and the enterprise; they understand law and politics; and they specialize in bringing readers the right answer, the first time. It's no wonder that Ars has become a "go-to" destination for those who need to sift the wheat from the chaff.

Ars Technica is also unique in a number of ways. We are a proud leader in conversational media, a new and exciting answer to the reader's need and desire for fresh voices, informed reporting, and reader engagement. Ars writers aren't afraid of wit or strongly-held opinions, and readers find both on display throughout our work. But at Ars, "opinion" never devolves into dogma; we strive for measured judgments and carefully relayed contexts. Those who come to Ars looking for computing religion won't find it, and that's why millions of readers trust our take on the day's tech news and look forward to our original reporting.

Then there's our formidable community. While "community" has lately become a Web buzzword, Ars has been building a real online community since its founding over eight years ago. We encourage reader feedback and participation in conversation via discussion on every article, as well as in the renowned Ars OpenForum—one of the Internet's true treasure troves, and one of the largest, documented community databases of tips, technical help, and camaraderie on the planet.

It was once said that sine scientia ars nihil est, that is, "without knowledge, art is nothing." We agree, but there's also a corollary: sine ars, scientia nihil est.

Welcome to Ars Technica.
4 votes

Linux tools for generating Just Enough OS

The open source Linux operating system offers a lot of compelling  advantages in virtualized environments. The platform’s inherent flexibility and modular design makes it possible to reduce overhead by omitting unneeded components. Instead of virtualizing an entire general purpose operating system, you can use a minimalistic profile that bundles only the bare necessities and the dependencies that you need to deploy your application. These slim platform images are often referred to as “Just Enough Operating System” (JeOS) software appliances.

Read More »

|  Tags: linux, operating system, virtualization
  • Author Icon By ars.technica on Jan 30th, 2009
  • Vote Yes
  • No Comments

4 votes

Efficiencies, costs, and the benefits of virtualization

One of the themes that I touched on in my recent webcast is this idea that virtualization represents a tradeoff of simplicity for efficiency. Specifically, I mentioned the complexity added to the software stack when virtualization is used, and how that added complexity pays for itself over the life of the system by enabling a number of dynamic optimizations of physical, software, and human assets (i.e., dynamic load-balancing to optimize bandwidth, dynamic application serving to eliminate overprovisioning of software licenses, reallocation of tech support time from commuting to actual maintenance via remote management technologies).

In this short post, I want to take a closer look at the hardware side of virtualization’s tradeoffs, as an avenue to a better understanding of how it actually generates value by enabling system architects to trade statically (over)provisioned hardware for dynamically provisioned hardware.

Bandwidth and transistors

Processor and system architects often speak of moving functionality into or out of software, as if software were some ephemeral reality with no physical costs. A better way to talk about this move would be to speak of moving functionality from fixed-function, statically-allocated hardware into general-purpose, dynamically-allocated hardware. 

To take a concrete example, consider the case of moving encryption functionality from a dedicated coprocessor into “software.” By replacing a coprocessor with an encryption program running on general purpose hardware, you move the encryption function from a fixed pool of transistors (i.e., the encryption IC) into a dynamically allocated pool of transistors that includes RAM, cache, and the various on-die components of a processor (both core and un-core). Sure, the software-run encryption may not be as fast, but if the coprocessor was infrequently used enough then it’s definitely more efficient from a total system cost and power draw perspective. Read More »

  • Author Icon By ars.technica on Jan 6th, 2009
  • Vote Yes
  • No Comments

  • FEATURING YOUR FAVORITE TECH BLOGGERS:
  • Posts by ars.technica
  • Posts by Dave Altavilla
  • Posts by Johan De Gelas
  • Posts by Knowledge@Wharton
  • Posts by Matthew Shaw
  • Posts by real.world.technologies
  • Posts by Steve Kovsky
  • Posts by The Insight Community
Watch The Joint Webcast

Virtualization - Moving Beyond Consolidation
Featuring Hot Hardware,
VMWare, Intel and IBM
February 10th,9 am PST

Maximize Business Value
with Virtualization

(This event is now archived & available on demand.) Featuring Ars Technica
Speakers: Iddo Kadim, Director, Virtualization Technologies at Intel & Bob Zuber of IBM December 9th, 9am PST

Economic Value of Virtualization
(This event is now archived & available on demand.) Featuring Daily Tech's Steve Kovsky
January 29th, 9am PST


REGISTER NOW

LOG IN NOW

Draw It Up

Draw your network challenge or your ideal server virtualization set-up

Graffiti Whiteboard Launch Whiteboard
benchmarking CIOs client cloud CPU data data center Dual-core energy resource enterprise environment I/O IT Management multi-core notebook octal-cores quad-core server storage technology thin client virtual virtualization VMWare

FM Brought to you by IBM, Intel and Federated Media | Terms & Conditions / Privacy Statement