What is virtual? - Definition from Whatis.com

Definition

virtual

In general, virtual means the quality of effecting something without actually being that something. In information technology, there seems to be a virtual version of (virtually) everything.

"Virtual" derives from the Latin "vir" ("man" in an idealized sense), from which developed the Latin "virtus" (strength, manliness, virtue). In Middle English, the adjective meant "possessed of certain physical virtues." By modern times, it had come to mean, as defined in Webster's, "being in essence or effect but not in fact."

Related glossary terms: GSX Server, root partition, SPARC (Scalable Processor Architecture) , systems management, virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), virtual private server (VPS) or virtual dedicated server (VDS), live migration, physical to virtual (P2V) , Our Favorite Technology Blogs, Parallel Virtual Machine (PVM)

This was last updated in September 2006

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