Virtualization

We live in an era where computing made very rapid growth. It really changed lives of people in every field. Therefore, every other day, we do hear about new softwares, applications, operating systems and tools in terms of advancement. Today computing is the base of anything we do. These days, we mostly go through two new terms in computing Virtualization and cloud computing. It is for definite sure that future computing is based on these two new terms.

Virtualization is a very heated topic in IT circles at the moment. It is a very broad term, frequently misunderstood by many in higher education community. Technically, it can be stated that creation of a virtual version of something rather than actual version, for instance creating virtual operating system, a server of storage device or network resources. In other words, we can explain a virtual machine is nothing but a data file on a physical computer, that can be moved and copied to another computer just like a normal data file. A very common and most used form of virtualization is the operating system. In this form, multiple operating systems can be run on a single piece oh hardware.

Further, virtualization has many benefits including low or no-cost development, full resource utilization, operational lost savings and power savings. Through, virtualization multiple resources can be accessed from a single server. As a result, we can have fewer servers instead of many servers. Thus, consumption of energy would be lowered and less maintenance would be required. Virtualization is an umbrella term for many different types of computing.

Hardware Virtualization: This virtualization makes a single server to run multiple operating systems at the same time. Therefore, it decreases the number of servers.

Software Virtualization: It usually applies on single computer not on entire network. For example, if we boot Mac on windows, then we virtualize software.

Desktop Virtualization: VMware calls this VDI, and although that is their proprietary system, the concept of Desktop Virtualization is not limited to any single company. In this Scenario, each computer’s preferences, OS, application and files are hosted somewhere other than the local machine. This has number of benefits, both for end users and IT departments.

At the end, it can be derived that virtualization can bring many benefits including increased agility, greater flexibility, and improved cost efficiency.