[ Thanks to Ken Hess
for this link. ]
“So, why all the fuss over small, single-purpose
virtual machines? Haven’t we been using these for years? Yes,
in fact, we have been using them for years but the difference is
that now there are commercial vendors who supply them, support
them, and update them as they would any application or proprietary
physical appliance. Virtual appliances make the vendor’s job
easier in that they no longer have to support several different
versions of physical systems in client data centers since virtual
machines are hardware and platform independent. Keeping up with
BIOS updates, firmware versions, and physical device age (product
life cycle), and support issues for hundreds or thousands of client
units is painful and costly. Vendor-supplied virtual appliance
images available via download are ready-to-deploy and use.“Linux-based appliances have other advantages as well. The
operating system is free, most of the applications are free, and
it’s easy to maintain locally or remotely. Of its advantages,
perhaps the most compelling of all is its customizability including
the ability to install a fully functional Linux system within a
very small (~500MB) footprint using a system known as JeOS (Just
Enough OS)– pronounced “juice.” Most virtual
appliance vendors begin with a JeOS system as a base system for a
virtual appliance.”