Virtual stacking is utilized in a virtual machine environment by receiving a data element for storage to a shared memory location and writing to the shared memory location. Writing to the shared memory location may be implemented by reading the shared memory location contents, encoding the received data element with the shared memory location contents to derive an encoded representation and writing the encoded representation to the shared memory location so as to overwrite the previous shared memory location contents. The method may further comprise receiving a request for a desired data element encoded into the shared memory location, decoding the shared memory location contents until the desired data element is recovered and communicating the requested data element.