Questions tagged [virtualization]

Virtualization is the creation of a virtual (rather than actual) version of something, such as a hardware platform, operating system, a storage device or network resources.

Virtualization helps in:

1. Better use of under-utilized computers
2. Hardware Independence
3. Data protection

I) Virtualization can be done at zonal level, software or hardware.

The main reason for server virtualization is to maximize the utilization of resources. In the conventional system each application will have its own dedicated server. The drawback is that most of the resources remain unused most of the time. Typically, less than 20% of a physical server resource gets utilized. Companies still need to spend money, energy and resources for updating each of these physical servers and keeping them up and running. Virtualization divides each of the physical servers into multiple virtual servers, thus creating multiple logical instances of software on a single physical hardware. Thus multiple applications can run on a single server and each application running on a virtual server is made to feel that it is the unique holder of the physical resource. Thus it maximizes resource utilization and reduces the cost of maintenance by reducing the number of physical servers.

II) Network Virtualization: Given a physical network, virtualization allows for multiple logical networks to run atop(parallely) the common physical substrate. Thus, multiple users can share the network resources and it provides a secure/ reliable connection among the virtually connected nodes.