Organizations use virtualization to effectively manage their cloud environment. Here’s an overview of the different types and what each has to offer.
In today’s enterprise IT infrastructure, virtualization has become mainstream as companies look for more productive and cost-effective ways to run their business. Of cloud computing As one of the key drivers of digital transformation in recent years, the adoption of virtualization is creating the environment for both cloud providers and users to more effectively manage and distribute cloud services.
Virtualization makes it possible to display operating systems, applications and data storage from software or hardware in virtual form. With the number of companies moving their resources to the cloud, it is becoming more convenient for cloud providers to use virtualization to configure their services according to the individual needs of their customers, making their services more scalable and flexible.
TO SEE: Hiring Kit: Cloud Engineer (Tech Republic Premium)
In cloud computing, virtualization allows cloud providers to create a virtual emulation of multiple products or services on a single machine without impacting the efficiency of the system. In addition to helping cloud providers reduce hardware resources and implement energy-efficient computing techniques, virtualization allows cloud users to purchase computing resources based on their needs. This helps end users to only subscribe to necessary computing resources as their workload increases.
There are several types to consider, and knowing them can help ensure that you apply virtualization at the right time in your IT infrastructure. That said, let’s run through six types of virtualization.
1. Storage Virtualization
Storage management is an area of cloud computing that has been enhanced by virtualization in recent years. Storage virtualization involves collecting and merging different physical storage units and displaying them as one storage cluster over a network.
This type is often useful for businesses and individuals looking to expand and scale their storage without investing in physical storage facilities. In addition, storage virtualization improves effective storage management by ensuring that multiple storage points are easily accessible from a single repository.
2. Network Virtualization
Network virtualization is used to merge several networks into one, duplicate the resources of a network, and perform an interconnection between virtual machines.
Network virtualization allows virtual networks to be separated and deployed, with each having its unique configuration without affecting the other. For example, when creating a virtual network, you can share your bandwidths and allocate them individually to different channels where they are most needed. In addition, network virtualization allows different users to run the same virtual network on a physical network without causing latency issues on the network.
3. Application Virtualization
The main purpose of application virtualization is to ensure that cloud users can access applications remotely from a server. The server contains all the information and functions necessary for the application to work and is accessible via the Internet. As a result, you do not need to install the application on your native device to access it. Application virtualization gives end users the flexibility to access two different versions of one application through a hosted application or packaged software.
4. Desktop Virtualization
Desktop virtualization is typically used to host end users’ operating systems remotely on a server or data center. This type also allows users to access their desktops with different machines.
Virtualizing your desktops gives users the flexibility to work across multiple operating systems based on the requirements of a project. In addition to flexibility, desktop virtualization provides portability, user mobility, and software updates and patch management.
5. Data Virtualization
Sometimes organizations are faced with the challenge of analyzing data from different sources. Data virtualization helps solve this by ensuring that data collected from multiple sources is analyzed together to increase productivity.
In addition, storage virtualization also enables organizations to centrally manage all their data stored in multiple sources such as Google Analytics, Excel files and HubSpot Reportsand displays them as a single dataset.
6. Server Virtualization
Server virtualization helps organizations partition server resources in a way that ensures that the resources are fully utilized. One of its main purposes is that it helps split huge physical servers into different instances of virtual servers. This allows each server to be masked and run as a standalone server.
Server virtualization allows organizations to scale their server resources without investing in physical servers and deploy them according to users’ requests, needs, and computing power.
Benefits of virtualization in a cloud environment
Virtualization in cloud computing has several benefits and has become essential as the demand for computing grows. A notable advantage is that an entire system is saved from a possible collapse when there is a system crash in a part of the system. At the same time, virtualization makes it easy to protect IT environments from viruses and bugs when testing new software programs.
In addition, virtualization makes it easy for data transfer as organizations can move data between virtual devices and servers, saving time. In addition, with virtualized desktops and storage, organizations can also move an entire machine without relying on any physical infrastructure. This improves efficiency, productivity and cost effectiveness when managing cloud environments.
It’s a topic worthy of more research, and a recent article on TechRepublic looked at the pros and cons of virtualization characteristic featureswhile another position offered advice on: nine things you shouldn’t virtualize.
