With all the attention being paid these days to VDI (virtual desktop infrastructure) and application virtualization and server virtualization and <insert type> virtualization it’s easy to forget about network-based application virtualization. But it’s the one virtualization technique you shouldn’t forget because it is a foundational technology upon which myriad other solutions will be enabled.

WHAT IS NETWORK-BASED APPLICATION VIRTUALIZATION?

This term may not be familiar to you but that’s because since its inception oh, more than a decade ago, it’s always just been called “server virtualization”. After the turn of the century (I love saying that, by the way) it was always referred to as service virtualization in SOA and XML circles. With the rise of the likes of VMware and Citrix and Microsoft server virtualization solutions, it’s become impossible to just use the term “server virtualization” and “service virtualization” is just as ambiguous so it seems appropriate to give it a few more modifiers to make it clear that we’re talking about the network-based virtualization (aggregation) of applications.