Virtualisation has been around since the 1960s when mainframes were the most common way of processing data. In the 1960s the idea came about that it would be useful to share the processing power of a number of mainframes or large computers in order to share their combined computing power. This meant that costs could be reduced as mainframes could cost multiples of millions of pounds. Furthermore, these computers needed special environments to be able to work properly as well as large amounts of space because the machines were so large.
Since that period, virtualisation has become more sophisticated and the market for this type of technology is rapidly growing. As a result, this is an area of IT that is set to expand and increase over the coming years. There are now a number of virtualisation products that are able meet the needs of not only large corporations where it was originally of major benefit, but smaller companies as well, as they can reduce their costs by operating in a ‘virtual environment’.