Introduction to Virtualization and its Types

Virtualization is the process of creating a “virtual” version of something, such as computing environments, operating systems, storage devices or network components, instead of utilizing a physical version for certain aspects of a company's infrastructure.

Virtualization is not a new technology which has suddenly boomed and emerged resulting in a lot of people wanting to know about it. The technology has always been prevalent, but in the last few years it is has gained prominence and has been the talk of the town.

What is Virtualization?

Virtualization is a term used when creating a virtual environment for any program to run on an existing platform as a guest, without interfering or interrupting with the host platform’s services or programs

It would be very easier to understand the concept with more details like it types and uses. Below are some Types of Virtualization:

Operating System Virtualization

Operating System Virtualization is a type of Virtualization concept that most users today are familiar with and use. It typically allows you to run and install any kind of Operating systems like Windows, or a Linux distro on your existing operating system. 

Key: It requires a Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) which allows you to install and manage multiple operating systems running simultaneously even (If your machine has sufficient resources).

Network Virtualization

In its very basic form, a VLAN created even on a small network can be termed as Network Virtualization. In Network Virtualization, Two (or more) virtual networks can be created within the same physical network belonging to the same IP range and yet they do not have the authorization to communicate with each other. 

Key: They operate on their own logical network, with each logical network having a different set of processes and functions to perform.

Hardware Virtualization

An individual independent segment of hardware may consist of smaller pieces of hardware from multiple locations but are treated as a single independent device. The process requesting the hardware is totally unaware and usually only alerts in case if the hardware requirements for the process isn’t met.

Storage Virtualization

Storage Virtualization is of mainly 2 types, Block and File.

In Block Virtualization, multiple storage devices are consolidated, which then actually appears as a single physical storage device. This helps the administrators in many ways, such as Load Balancing, optimizing performance and speed.

 Technically, they actually RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) these devices and configure it depending on the type of RAID system they need. 

In fact, even something as simple as Partitioning your own hard drives into more than one partition can be considered as an example.

File Virtualization, as the name suggests, is the file or directory stored on the hard drive, which is located in a data center. The file may not be stored within your personal folder, in fact, the folder might not even have your own name, it may be located in a data center across the globe.