The term virtualization leads to a wealth of definitions. A generic, rather popular scientific description is "In computing, virtualization is a broad term that refers to the abstraction of computer resources."
IBM® invented the virtualization technology starting in the 1960s on the mainframe, and the functionalities evolved and were ported to other platforms and improved the reliability, availability, and serviceability (RAS) features. With virtualization, you achieve better asset utilization, reduced operating costs, and faster responsiveness to changing business demands.

Every technology vendor in the SAP® ecosystem understands virtualization as slightly different capabilities on different levels (storage and server hardware, CPU, memory, I/O resources or the application, and so on). It is important to understand exactly what functionality is offered and how it supports the customer's business requirements.

SAP covers the subject in their SAP Community Network (SDN) Web page:
https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/virtualization
In this IBM Redbooks® publication, we focus on server virtualization technologies in the IBM Power Systems™ hardware, AIX® and Linux® on Power space and what they mean specifically for SAP applications running on this platform.

We do not repeat information that is already available from other sources unless it is directly related to the IT infrastructure for the SAP solution; therefore, we included a lot of links and references for further information about virtualization in general.

SAP customers can leverage the technology that the IBM System p® platform offers. In this book, we describe the technologies and functions, what they mean, and how they apply to the SAP system landscape.

SAP currently has no limitations, in general, supporting their products that are running on PowerVM™ technology. If there are specific limitations, we mention them in the individual chapters and compiled them in the list of links in "Related publications" on page 127.

This publication contains the following content with regard to virtualization and SAP applications on IBM PowerVM:
-> From a non-virtualized to a virtualized infrastructure
-> PowerVM virtualized technologies
-> Best practice implementation example at a customer
-> Hands on management tasks
-> Virtual I/O server
-> IBM PowerVM Live Partition Mobility
-> Workload partitions
-> SAP technologies taking advantage of virtualization
-> Monitoring
-> Specifics in Linux on Power

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