Businesses are moving forward with server and storage virtualization projects and realizing the benefits. IBM® offers the industry's broadest set of virtualization capabilities. The cross-platform virtualization, automation, and systems management solutions available from IBM enable customers to access and manage resources simply and dynamically for better asset utilization and reduced operating costs.

This paper serves as both an introduction to virtualization, as well as an overview of pertinent IBM hardware and software virtualization offerings. We first introduce the concepts of virtualization and the benefits of virtualizing your systems. We then describe virtualization options for each of the IBM Systems platforms as well as software and storage technologies that are used to implement virtualization.

This paper is suitable for people who want to expand their knowledge of virtualization and what IBM can offer with its systems and software.

Chapter 1. Executive overview

Chapter 2. Virtualization benefits

Chapter 3. Consolidation using virtualization

Chapter 4. Server virtualization techniques

Chapter 5. System z virtualization

Chapter 6. Power Systems virtualization

Chapter 7. System x and BladeCenter Virtualization

Chapter 8. Storage virtualization

Chapter 9. Systems and virtualization management

Chapter 10. Summary