Hang on to your hats! If implementing virtualization in your fancy new data center wasn't enough, Cisco has set its sights on providing virtualization to consumer desktops and set top boxes. According to Computerworld, reporting from Cisco's C-Scape conference, the network giant says virtualzation for consumers could mean that a service provider would host the virtualization capability, giving the end user the ability to run a thin client instead of a full PC, with storage and even computing functions undertaken at the hosting facility.

Computerworld reports: With such virtualization, not only would actual desktops and set top boxes be physically smaller, but they could rely on the potentially enormous resources of the host's data center and its links to partner's data centers throughout the world, analysts said.

Is virtualization a good fit for the consumer market?

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