Cost reduction, efficient use of resources, improved accessibility, risk minimization... Virtualization offers many advantages. It should not be confused with the cloud. But thanks to the cloud, you also benefit from greater flexibility and self-service capability.
Virtualization creates a dynamic that helps companies react more quickly to changes in their markets. It also makes it possible to adopt new technologies while limiting risks. IT departments can respond more rapidly to business needs.
There are many variations on virtualization in the cloud. The virtual environment can be a single instance or a combination of several. Such as operating systems, network or application servers, computing environments, storage devices...
Here's a non-exhaustive overview of the main variations.
#1 Hardware virtualization
This is one of the most common types of virtualization, as it is linked to application availability and hardware utilization. All physical servers are grouped together into one large physical server. This allows the processor to operate more efficiently and effectively. Each small server can host a virtual machine, a totally isolated software container with its own operating system and applications. But the entire server cluster is treated as a single device by any process requiring the hardware.
Access to the virtual machine (or VM) and the host machine (or server) is facilitated by software called a Hypervisor. This abstraction layer acts as a link between the hardware and the virtual environment, and distributes hardware resources such as CPU utilization and memory allocation between the different virtual environments.
#2 Software virtualization
It includes the primary system's ability to create and run more virtual environments. This declination enables a computer system to allow a guest OS to run. For example, Linux could function as a guest to run a Windows operating system. It can also involve the virtualization of applications, services or memory. For example, the application can run in an encapsulated form without depending on the underlying operating system.
#3 Desktop virtualization
This is one of the most widely used and popular types of virtualization. Users can access their desktop from any location.
#4 Storage virtualization
This technique consolidates the hardware storage space of several interconnected storage devices into a single simulated device that is managed from a single control console. Cloud storage manipulation is primarily used for data backup, archiving and recovery, masking the complex real-world physical storage architecture.
This storage technique is often used in storage networks. It offers a number of advantages: reduced downtime, speed, performance...
#5 Network virtualization
This is a complete software reproduction of a physical network. It involves combining the resources available in a network by dividing the available bandwidth into different channels, each separated and distinguished. The idea is that the technology masks the true complexity of the network by separating it into manageable parts. It helps you better monitor and identify data usage. It also ensures security by limiting the movement of files across multiple networks.
#6 Server virtualization
According to VMWare, most servers use less than 15% of their capacity, which contributes to their proliferation and complexity. Server virtualization solves these efficiency problems by enabling multiple operating systems to run on a single physical server.
Another major argument is that this type of virtualization delivers substantial cost savings without any real change to the IT department. A few hypervisor hosts and a management console replace dozens or even hundreds of physical servers!
In practice, this technique simulates physical servers by changing their identity, numbers, processors and operating systems. This avoids the need for users to constantly manage complex server resources.
Virtualization is one of the keys to business agility. It creates a highly available environment, ensuring that all your applications are accessible at all times. If one of your servers goes down, all virtual machines can be automatically restarted on another machine, without downtime or data loss.
Whatever type of virtualization you need, it's advisable to use service providers who offer simple tools for managing your resources and monitoring usage.
