I've only played with virtual machines for the past 6 months. I always looked at VM's as a server side technology, and never really fully appreciated their use. Quite ignorant!One of the challenges my organisation faces is ensuring all the developers are working with the same versions of software as production. Sometimes, the production machines get a patch, but the developers continue to work on older versions. Sometimes this happens because they don't know how to upgrade, are too busy or are just plain lazy. Either way, when their code goes in for release and breaks we always get the "works on my machine" story.
So, what is a virtual appliance?
"Virtual appliances are ready-to-run virtual machines packaged with an operating system and software application. These self-contained appliances make it simpler to acquire, deploy and manage applications by eliminating underlying hardware and operating system dependencies." VMware
At my office we work with predominantly Oracle software - and so we have created a Database, Weblogic, Forms & Reports on one appliance, then Database, Weblogic and BPM on another. Now, when we make a patch we update the VM and share it amongst the developers. Job done!
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