Virtualization in Cloud Computing and Types

Virtualization is a technique of how to separate a service from

the underlying physical delivery of that service. It is the process
of creating a virtual version of something like computer
hardware. It was initially developed during the mainframe era. It
involves using specialized software to create a virtual or
software-created version of a computing resource rather than the
actual version of the same resource. With the help of
Virtualization, multiple operating systems and applications can
run on the same machine and its same hardware at the same
time, increasing the utilization and flexibility of hardware.
In other words, one of the main cost-effective, hardware-
reducing, and energy-saving techniques used by cloud providers
is Virtualization. Virtualization allows sharing of a single
physical instance of a resource or an application among multiple
customers and organizations at one time. It does this by
assigning a logical name to physical storage and providing a
pointer to that physical resource on demand. The term
virtualization is often synonymous with hardware virtualization,
which plays a fundamental role in efficiently delivering
Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) solutions for cloud computing.
Moreover, virtualization technologies provide a virtual
environment for not only executing applications but also for
storage, memory, and networking.
 Virtualization

 Host Machine: The machine on which the virtual machine is

going to be built is known as Host Machine.
 Guest Machine: The virtual machine is referred to as a Guest

Machine.
Work of Virtualization in Cloud Computing
Virtualization has a prominent impact on Cloud Computing. In
the case of cloud computing, users store data in the cloud, but
with the help of Virtualization, users have the extra benefit of
sharing the infrastructure. Cloud Vendors take care of the
required physical resources, but these cloud providers charge a
huge amount for these services which impacts every user or
organization. Virtualization helps Users or Organisations in
maintaining those services which are required by a company
through external (third-party) people, which helps in reducing
 costs to the company. This is the way through which
Virtualization works in Cloud Computing.
Benefits of Virtualization
 More flexible and efficient allocation of resources.

 Enhance development productivity.

 It lowers the cost of IT infrastructure.

 Remote access and rapid scalability.

 High availability and disaster recovery.

 Pay peruse of the IT infrastructure on demand.

 Enables running multiple operating systems.

Drawback of Virtualization
 High Initial Investment: Clouds have a very high initial

investment, but it is also true that it will help in reducing the

cost of companies.
 Learning New Infrastructure: As the companies shifted

from Servers to Cloud, it requires highly skilled staff who

have skills to work with the cloud easily, and for this, you
have to hire new staff or provide training to current staff.
 Risk of Data: Hosting data on third-party resources can lead

to putting the data at risk, it has the chance of getting attacked

by any hacker or cracker very easily.
Characteristics of Virtualization
 Increased Security: The ability to control the execution of a

guest program in a completely transparent manner opens new

possibilities for delivering a secure, controlled execution
environment. All the operations of the guest programs are
generally performed against the virtual machine, which then
translates and applies them to the host programs.
 Managed Execution: In particular, sharing, aggregation,

emulation, and isolation are the most relevant features.

 Sharing: Virtualization allows the creation of a separate
computing environment within the same host.
 Aggregation: It is possible to share physical resources among

several guests, but virtualization also allows aggregation,

which is the opposite process.
Types of Virtualization
1. Application Virtualization
2. Network Virtualization
3. Desktop Virtualization
4. Storage Virtualization
5. Server Virtualization
6. Data virtualization

Types of Virtualization

1. Application Virtualization: Application virtualization helps

a user to have remote access to an application from a server. The
server stores all personal information and other characteristics of
the application but can still run on a local workstation through
the internet. An example of this would be a user who needs to
run two different versions of the same software. Technologies
that use application virtualization are hosted applications and
packaged applications.
2. Network Virtualization: The ability to run multiple virtual
networks with each having a separate control and data plan. It
co-exists together on top of one physical network. It can be
managed by individual parties that are potentially confidential to
each other. Network virtualization provides a facility to create
and provision virtual networks, logical switches,
routers, firewalls, load balancers, Virtual Private Networks
(VPN), and workload security within days or even weeks.

Network Virtualization

3. Desktop Virtualization: Desktop virtualization allows the

users’ OS to be remotely stored on a server in the data center. It
allows the user to access their desktop virtually, from any
location by a different machine. Users who want specific
operating systems other than Windows Server will need to have
a virtual desktop. The main benefits of desktop virtualization are
user mobility, portability, and easy management of software
installation, updates, and patches.
4. Storage Virtualization: Storage virtualization is an array of
servers that are managed by a virtual storage system. The
servers aren’t aware of exactly where their data is stored and
instead function more like worker bees in a hive. It makes
managing storage from multiple sources be managed and
utilized as a single repository. storage virtualization software
maintains smooth operations, consistent performance, and a
continuous suite of advanced functions despite changes, breaks
down, and differences in the underlying equipment.
5. Server Virtualization: This is a kind of virtualization in
which the masking of server resources takes place. Here, the
central server (physical server) is divided into multiple different
virtual servers by changing the identity number, and processors.
So, each system can operate its operating systems in an isolated
manner. Where each sub-server knows the identity of the central
server. It causes an increase in performance and reduces the
operating cost by the deployment of main server resources into a
sub-server resource. It’s beneficial in virtual migration, reducing
energy consumption, reducing infrastructural costs, etc.
Server Virtualization
 6. Data Virtualization: This is the kind of virtualization in
which the data is collected from various sources and managed at
a single place without knowing more about the technical
information like how data is collected, stored & formatted then
arranged that data logically so that its virtual view can be
accessed by its interested people and stakeholders, and users
through the various cloud services remotely. Many big giant
companies are providing their services like Oracle, IBM, At
scale, Cdata, etc.
Uses of Virtualization
 Data-integration

 Business-integration

 Service-oriented architecture data-services

 Searching organizational data