If you have a technology-driven business, you may use many different types of software, some of which may require different operating systems. It's easy to spend a lot of money on computer servers to run certain applications, and those servers could both eat up your office space and drive up your electricity bills.

If you're already in this situation, or just thinking about adding more servers, it may be time to consider virtualization software. Virtualization allows you to run multiple applications on a single server by creating a simulated computer environment -- often called a virtual machine -- wherein each application runs.

Numerous Advantages

Although virtualization is an old concept that dates back to the 1960s, the technology has gained wider popularity in recent years as businesses have realized the cost and maintenance advantages of running multiple applications on one machine.

"With modern computers, virtualization has become very useable as anyone who has tried to use today's iteration of the software on today's Macs can contest," says Luigi Baccari, president of the Boston-based IT firm E-Data Corp. "It's very useful for Mac people who need to use PC-only software like Access."