02 Dec 2008

Expert explains virtualisation networking

Industry expert Scott Lowe has responded to questions raised about how virtual systems manage network connectivity in his blog at ITWorld.

Mr Lowe commented that he received a number of questions on the subject after recently introducing virtualisation to a network team.

"Although virtualisation has become a hot topic in many places, the ins and outs of the technology are not always well understood," he commented.

Virtualisation software generally provides two modes of network communication, through a bridged or network address translation (NAT) format.

Under a bridged setup, the virtual machine (VM) translates directly with the network and traffic only needs to be directed through the host network information centre, Mr Lowe noted.

Whereas in NAT mode, the VM is assigned an address from a virtual network created by the host and communicates with the outside world by routing its traffic through that host, he wrote.

His comments come after a market post on the Aberdeen Group website has stated that virtualisation is a trend "sweeping across" the IT sector.