V12N == Virtualization

I'm slow. Occasionally it takes several reads before I understand some new acronym. But I'm lazy, so I tolerate the acronym soup we live in. I don't recall how many years this "I18N" shorthand has been around, but it eventually dawned on me that it meant something important: internationalization. (Try ten times; tends to twist the tongue.) It's a biggie. I'll save those details for another soap box.

The new "important thing" is virtualization, and it's a hot button, even moreso (to me) than I18N. Maybe it's more like an obsession. But it can be a mouthful. And if you're not a touch typist (or even if you are!) you might have trouble with the long form. So let me recommend a contraction in the same vein as I18N: V12N.

(z/OS crowd, turn away for a moment.) I love VM! (Why some z/OS people find VM distasteful I do not understand.) Looking back to my first encounter with VM, I remember asking the guy demonstrating, "Every user gets his own System/370?". He assured me this was so. Imagine that! What flexibility! The potential for virtual machines was immediately obvious, with increasing uses as the years have passed. And now we've got VMware and other serious offerings for hardware other than Z.

Today, the idea of "virtual machine" has reached that ultimate goal any technology could want: commercial exploitation. The business world is beginning to grok V12N ... and want it. Sometimes it's virtualization in the metaphor sense, like Java. When techies talk "virtual", we usually mean in the same sense as virtual memory. Either way, V12N is hot!

So here's a helpful handle: Call it V12N and tell the laymen what you mean. Preach it, brother!

-- R;