Virtualization Benefits

Introduction to Virtualization Benefits

Virtualization is the process, in which we create a virtual platform of accessing the software, applications, stores, databases, networks, etc. It has proven its efficiency over the years. The most powerful tool that can reduce the costs related to infrastructure for businesses and organizations implementing them. We need to understand that the process is not a new one, it is being implemented since the 1990s for servers and the internet era has boosted it than ever.

It is the single source of creating a powerful virtual computing platform by utilizing minimum resources, like desktops, servers, hardware and OS. The most common examples include partitioning of hard disk drives during the Operating system installation on a computer. Here the hard disk drive is split into several logical disks this, in turn, gives the store a new realm of strength and makes the retrieval of data much easier and it is labeled as data virtualization.

Benefits of Virtualization

• There was initially slower growth in this field but with the added advantages the growth saw an acceleration in the market to come to top trends, today it is exploding in terms of its usage.
• Firms have realized the benefits of the technology and are seamlessly enjoying numerous advantages.
• Virtualization depends on the software which helps to stimulate the functions of hardware and thus creates a virtual environment.
• The firms use virtual systems for running multiple OS and applications on one server alone. The economies are perfectly handled with virtualization.
• Virtual Machines: A virtual computer is called a virtual machine, which is a container box for OS and applications. These machines are independent. It puts several OS and applications to run seamlessly on one machine called virtual. A thin layer of software helps to decouple the virtual hosts from other hosts and is termed as a hypervisor. It helps to allocate the resources to the processor dynamically whenever needed.

Elements of Virtual Machine

The elements of the Virtual Machine are shown below:

1. Helps by partitioning the drive: The partitioning helps to run several OS on one machine virtually. It divides the resources of one machine to several applications running on the virtual machine.

2. Helps to make privacy and Isolation: It helps to correct faults and gives extra isolation from faults, secures the system by isolating it at the hardware level. The performance is preserved and extra resource controls with advanced mechanisms are provided.

3. Encapsulation: The encapsulation saves the files for use in one capsule form by the virtual machines. Step of move and copy in virtual machines becomes simple similar to moving and copying files normally.

4. Hardware Independence: The facility to migrate any virtual machine to any physical server is also supported in virtualization.

Key Benefits

Given below are the key benefits of virtual machine:

1. Heat buildup is quite less

Millions of dollars were spent earlier in the same and we knew that the servers produced extreme heat by dissipation form the server engines. So the only way to reduce them was to use a few servers and guess what Virtualization simply did that. It reduced the server machines and combined their powers into one single machine.

2. The cost is reduced to a greater extent

The main source of the cost incurred was due to a large number of hardware in usage. The reduction in hardware numbers also impacted the overall cost of the infrastructure required to run businesses either online or offline. Thus electricity bills were reduced and overall savings increased.

3. The redeployment is quicker than ever

The redeployment time of a server came down to a greater extent. This process of redeployment is now being done in minutes with just a few clicks and the end-user has almost no idea about it, and hardly is it noticed.

4. Greater and easier backups

The virtual machines can be now easily moved over servers and redeployed in the wink of an eye. This ensured great and easy backup mechanisms on the server and clouds.

5. Green environment care

The most important benefit we see is the care of our environment especially in the era of Climate change throughout the world. The machine and planet relationship is improved.

6. Testing abilities improved

We happen to witness testing better than ever. The testing environments can now be isolated from its end users and yet keeping them online. This has improved customer satisfaction.

7. Vendor lock-in prohibited

The abstraction observed here with virtualization is an added advantage. The abstraction is among the software and the hardware so we can change vendors and customize our own infrastructure based on reviews.

8. Disaster recovery made easier and cheaper

Disaster recovery is introduced in an era where nothing seems to be permanent. The level of flexibility has improved and the success rates are found to be better than ever.

9. Single-minded servers

A single point of failure could occur, and thus backup support as we saw has improved. Now we have cost-effective routes of senders for our emails, database servers, web servers, etc. Thus data center management has witnessed great efficiency with virtualization.

10. Migration of data over cloud made easier

The cloud environment that we will enjoy with virtualization is impeccable. The powerful cloud-based infrastructures can now be bought online and the whole businesses are run over the assurance provided by virtualization. Most Software made for VM monitoring requires hardware support as well. There are several kinds of virtualization, like Network virtualization, Server virtualization, Desktop virtualization, Hardware virtualization, Software virtualization, Storage virtualization.

Conclusion – Virtualization Benefits

Thus let us conclude by saying Virtualization helps to gain better performance and efficiency from resources in the existing computing components, using CPU virtualization. Virtualization helps to save money on costly infrastructures like hardware by installing virtualization software which is not so costly. This software also needs very less support of hardware for executing on physical machines.

This is a guide to Virtualization Benefits. Here we discuss the introduction, elements of the virtual machine and key benefits. You may also have a look at the following articles to learn more –

1. Storage Virtualization
2. Virtualization in Cloud Computing
3. Fog Computing
4. History of Cloud Computing
5. Top 5 Virtualization Platforms