Virtualization is the kind of technology that has been used by IT experts for a while now, but only recently it has become popular around the whole IT industry. It has come out as a transforming power which does not only trigger company’s infrastructure but can also help in enhancing the overall efficiency of the organization.

In this post, we will help you to know about virtualization and its different types but before getting started, let me introduce you to virtualization. It is important for us to remove the underlying clouds first and then move onto the crux.

What is Virtualization?

Virtualization is a process of building a virtual environment of something like operating systems, network components, storage systems and computing environment instead of going with the physical aspect of a company’s infrastructure.

You can also say that virtualization is a software which differentiates physical infrastructures and creates several dedicated resources. It is that fundamental technology that gives the power to cloud computing.

If we go by the words of experts, virtualization is a software which allows various operating systems and applications run on the single server at the same time. It works on a technology which separates virtual environment from the physically existing infrastructure.

It helps businesses to reduce IT expenses and enhance the efficiency, flexibility and performance of computer hardware.

Benefits of Virtualization

Now that you have had an overview of what virtualization is, let us now talk about various advantages it carries. The advantages that virtualization has are as follows:

1. Maximum Utilization of Resources

Virtualization helps you to get more values from the servers by reducing the number of physical systems. It allows underutilized systems to use maximum hardware investment.

2. Use of Multiple Systems

Virtualization helps you to run lot of applications on a single physical hardware. You can even run different operating systems for these apps on the same hardware.

3. Maximize ROI

Virtualization enables you to maximize and streamline your resources by reducing the physical hardware that requires maintenance. It provides maximum usage of the servers you need.

Types of Virtualization

Virtualization is of various types. Read out to know how and why these types are beneficial and are also different from each other.

1. Hardware Virtualization

This is one of the most common types of Virtualization as it is related to the application uptime and utilization of hardware. The primary motive behind this technology brings together all the physical servers into one large physical server. Thus making the processor work more efficiently and effectively.

The operating system of the physical server gets transformed into a well to do OS that runs on a virtual system. It consists of a hypervisor that solely manages the memory, processor and other elements by allowing multiple OS to run on the same machine without the help of any source code.

Hardware Virtualization is further divided into 3 sub categories which include :

Full Virtualization

Para Virtualization

Partial Virtualization

2. Software Virtualization

Software Virtualization comprises of the ability to the primary system to create and run more virtual environment. It enables a computer system to allow a guest OS to run. For example, Linux could run as a guest to run a Microsoft Windows OS.

Software Virtualization is also of three types which includes

Operating System

Application Virtualization and Service Virtualization.

3. Memory Virtualization

When physical memory around different servers is combined to form a single virtual memory as a pool it is called as Memory Virtualization. With this, you can get the benefit of bigger working memory. Some of you may be familiar with this term as Microsoft Windows allows one of your storage portion to work as an extension of your RAM.

There are two subtypes of Memory Virtualization, i.e. Application-Level Control and Operating System Level Control.

Application-Level Control

Operating System Level Control

4. Storage Virtualization

Storage Virtualization is the process which helps in the grouping of physical storage from a number of network storage devices. Therefore, it works as a single storage device. It also has many advantages with this as it has the capacity to reduce downtime, speed, performance and load balancing.

It has two subtypes including Block virtualization and File virtualization.

5. Data Virtualization

It helps in manipulating data as it is presented as an independent abstract layer of database systems. It helps in formatting errors and reduces data inputs.

6. Network Virtualization

Network Virtualization is a multiple sub-network that could be produced on a similar physical network. It helps you to allow better supervision and identification of data usage. It also makes sure security by restricting file movement across multiple networks. It comes out as more reliable one network which never creates a problem for other networks.

Internal and External networks are the two subtypes of Network Virtualization.

7. Desktop Virtualization

This is one of the most used and popular types of virtualization as in this form of user’s desktops which are stored on remote server. Therefore the user can access his desktop from any location as per his wish. There is no need to go to a particular place as anyone can work smoothly from their home.

There is no risk related to data mining as data transfer runs over a secured protocols.

Conclusion

Although Virtualization is not suitable for everyone but the way it provides security, cost effectivity and sustainable utilization of the available resources you may consider it as a part of your organization.

I am sure that this post will help you to choose the best suitable among different types of Virtualization. Whichever type you go, my only suggestion for you is to always go with those service providers, who can easily manage and monitor your usage. So that you don’t need to spend much time in managing virtual servers and it could be beneficial for you.