What is a type 1 hypervisor you ask? According to Wikipedia it is a software system that runs directly on the host's hardware to control the hardware and to monitor guest operating-systems. A guest operating system thus runs on another level above the hypervisor. An example of this is VMware’s ESX server which has been available now for some time. So why do I think type 1 hypervisors will be “game changers”? Because in the not too distant future, they will be available on desktops and laptops rather than just servers. This will allow us to “unhook” the OS from desktop and laptop hardware much like what ESX did for servers.

Image management for desktops and laptops will change. It will be possible to file transfer a virtual container (with your OS and Apps) to your desktop on top of the type 1 hypervisor. It will be possible to patch an OS or application just once and resend that patched virtual container to all desktops and laptops. The compute cycles for the OS and applications will occur on the desktops and not on the server(s). So unlike a Terminal Services server or a VDI server we will not need lots and lots of memory in the servers containing the virtual containers. After all, the virtual container server is not doing any computing, but rather it is just transferring the files (virtual containers).  And we will probably not need near as many servers in the data center as we need for Terminal Services/VDI. A server with a lot less memory than for Terminal Services/VDI will be able to file transfer hundreds of virtual containers.

Currently, most desktops and laptops are configured today like the left side of below diagram, with the OS installed directly on the hardware. The right side of the diagram depicts what the desktops and laptops will look like after type 1 hypervisors are released.

So how does one future proof their purchases for this upcoming “game changer”? That’s really easy. By buying vPro desktops and laptops! vPro systems have the necessary firmware to run this type 1 hypervisor today! What about security you ask? Well we have thought of that too. It’s called TXT and we will get into that in my next blog.

Bob

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