Once a man who sold acupuncture needles came to talk to Coyote.
“I need to run an SQL server for my new sales software,” he said, “I'm told SQL can only run on Windows servers.” “That's basically true,” said Coyote.
“But,” said the man, “You have set us up with linux servers doing everything else we need. Our files are stored on them, our VPN runs off them, our websites, our intranet, everything. And our email is done by Google.” “Yes,” said Coyote.
“And,” said the man, “since you did that, everything has worked much better. I don't think I want a Windows server.” “I don't blame you,” said Coyote, “Here is what we will do. We will run a Windows server on a linux server.”
“We can do that?” asked the man.
“Oh yes,” said Coyote. “And we can use that to automate backups in a most clever way. We can have your entire database, without which your business cannot run, be copied every night to another linux machine. But not just the database, the entire Windows server. It can also be sent, via an external hard drive, every night, to the house of your graphic designer, so if Grandfather Fire decides to come wreck your office, you'll be able to get it back up immediately.”
“I will?” asked the man.
“Indeed,” said Coyote, filled with excitement, “And you'll be able to open up the Windows server on any computer, Mac or PC, powerful enough to run it. You connect this machine to your VPN and the database will become available. This is my magic.”
And so Coyote built a virtual machine and put Windows Server 2011 on it. And they tested it and it worked. They launched it on different computers owned by the company in different locations and every time it came up and started serving the database.
The needle merchant was happy. And Coyote was happy that he was happy. He knew he had done a good job.