"Virtuozzo, as compared to virtualization software leader VMware, is often called shared-operating system virtualization. Virtuozzo runs on top of a single operating system kernel and creates multiple partitions on top of it in which applications can be run. With VMware, multiple instances of an operating system run on top of a hypervisor layer. "

"Dan Olds, principal consultant at the Gabriel Consulting Group, said that Virtuozzo could be ideal for database applications. Because it doesn't create multiple instances of an operating system, it uses less overhead and thus leaves more room for database applications to run. "

""VMware is good stuff," he said. "But the problem is when you start to get a number of virtual machines up, the overhead can go through the roof, like 20 % plus on the machine just to run VMware. It's very memory intensive. Virtuozzo doesn't have nearly that much overhead. It's maybe 2% to 5%." "

"Olds added that Virtuozzo may not be appropriate for every company. For example, a company going through a server consolidation project may not want to bring virtual servers from different company divisions onto one box simply because they share the same operating system version. Territorial battles and service level agreements (SLA) can complicate a consolidation that merges resources from
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