Virtualization

Virtualization is a concept first developed in the 1960’s to address problems of underutilization of computer mainframes. Since then, the application development of virtualization has become a worldwide phenomenon and software virtualization solutions (SVS) are common practice. Virtualization and modern SVS now allow software technology to use a physical resource, such as a virtual server or virtual desktop, and divide the resource up into virtual resources called virtual machines (VM’s).  In other words, server virtualization lets one computer do the job of multiple computers by sharing the resources of a single computer across multiple environments; thereby, making it possible to run multiple operating systems, multiple applications, and multiple application development programs on several computers at the same time without the main computer knowing it. In essence, virtualization allows you to transform hardware into software. This increases the utilization and flexibility of hardware, while freeing you from physical and geographical limitations. While virtualization technology is most popular in the virtual server world, virtualization technology is also being used in data storage such as Storage Area Networks, and inside operating systems such as Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V.

Advantages of Virtualization

Virtualization can be used by anyone who uses a computer. From Information Technology professionals to commercial businesses to government organizations, virtualization offers several advantages. Virtualization will save you time, money, and energy. Additionally, virtualization provides server consolidation, reduced power and cooling, green computing, ease of deployment and administration, increased security, improved and disaster recovery processes. The top five reasons to utilize virtualization are:

(1) Server Consolidation and Infrastructure Optimization, meaning you can achieve significantly higher resource utilization by pooling common infrastructure resources.

(2) Physical Infrastructure Cost Reduction, meaning you can reduce the number of servers and related Information Technology hardware in the data center, which can lead to significantly lower information technology costs.

(3) Improved Operational Flexibility and Responsiveness, meaning administrators spend less time on repetitive tasks such as provisioning, configuration, monitoring and maintenance and increase their efficiency.

(4) Increased Application Availability and Improved Business Continuity, meaning you can eliminate planned downtime and recover quickly from unplanned outages with the improved ability to securely backup entire virtual environments with no interruption in service.

(5) Improved Desktop Manageability and Security, meaning you can deploy, manage, and monitor secure desktop environments.

Virtualization Products

Popular virtualization products include VMware, Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008, and Virtual Iron. VMware, Inc. develops a virtualization software line prefixed with VMware and offers several virtualization related products, such as a converter and a capacity planner. Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 provides an optimized and reliable virtualization solution, catering to customers who want a basic and simplified virtualization solution for consolidating servers. This product offers very basic virtualization features. Virtual Iron is a more comprehensive solution to virtualization and may be more cost-effective than other virtualization products on the market.

Paravirtualization

Paravirtualization is a virtualization technique that presents a software interface to VM’s that is similar but not identical to that of the underlying hardware. It is a virtual machine mode in which your operating systems will not require complete emulation of hardware devices. Having a paravirtualized computer system uses an application programming interface, API, to interact with the host virtualization platform. Having a paravirtualized computer system allows the virtual machine monitor (VMM) to be simpler than previous methods. Also, having a system that is paravirtualized may allow VM’s that run on the VMM to achieve performance closer to non-virtualized hardware. Paravirtual mode does not require special virtualization technology hardware; whereas virtualization generally does.

Whether you opt for virtualization or paravirtualization, the general concept is beneficial to anyone who uses a computer and can save time, money, and energy.

Additional Information Technology Searches

Virtualized
VMI Paravirtualization
Paravirtualized Windows
Landesk Application Virtualization
Ubuntu Virtualization
Paravirtualization Windows
KVM Paravirtualization
Software Virtualization
IT Careers
Thin Client
Disk Storage