Principles of

Virtualization

CO 1- Session_2
 Topics of Session - 2

• Key Differences Between Cloud Computing and Virtualization

• Physical infrastructure and virtual infrastructure
• Benefits of virtual infrastructure
• Virtual infrastructure architecture
 Key Differences Between Cloud Computing and
Virtualization

• A Virtualization is software that virtualizes your hardware into

multiple machines while Cloud computing is the combination of
multiple hardware devices.
• In Virtualization, a user gets dedicated hardware while in Cloud
computing multiple hardware devices provide one login environment
for the user.
• Cloud computing is best to access from outside the office network
while Virtualization meant to access from office only.
• The cloud environment is accessible through URL so it can be
accessed outside work premises (Depending upon permission).
• Virtualization doesn’t depend upon the cloud computing environment
while without virtualization cloud computing can’t exist.
• Cloud computing works on IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) while
virtualization is based upon SaaS (Software as a Service).
• Shared computing resources like software and Hardware provide you
a cloud computing environment while Virtualization comes into
existence after Machine/Hardware manipulation.
• Cloud Computing provides you flexibility such as pay as you go, self-
service, etc. while access to a virtualized environment won’t allow
you to such features.
• Cloud computing is good for selling your service/software to external
users while Virtualization is best for setting up Data Center within the
company network/infrastructure.
• Storage capacity is limitless in the Cloud network while in a
Virtualization its depend upon Physical server capacity.
• Single machine failure won’t impact the cloud infrastructure while in
virtualization single node failure can impact 100s of virtual machines
(If Physical Hardware/Machine is not configured in High Availability)
 Physical infrastructure and virtual
infrastructure
What is virtual infrastructure?
• Virtual infrastructure is a collection of software-defined components
that make up an enterprise IT environment.
• A virtual infrastructure provides the same IT capabilities as physical
resources, but with software, so that IT teams can allocate these
virtual resources quickly and across multiple systems, based on the
varying needs of the enterprise.
• By decoupling physical hardware from an operating system, a virtual
infrastructure can help organizations achieve greater IT resource
utilization, flexibility, scalability and cost savings.
 Benefits of virtual infrastructure
• Cost savings: By consolidating servers, virtualization reduces capital
and operating costs associated with variables such as electrical power,
physical security, hosting and server development.
• Scalability: A virtual infrastructure allows organizations to react
quickly to changing customer demands and market trends by ramping
up on CPU utilization or scaling back accordingly.
• Increased productivity: Faster provisioning of applications and
resources allows IT teams to respond more quickly to employee
demands for new tools and technologies.
• Simplified server management: From seasonal spikes in consumer
demand to unexpected economic downturns, organizations need to
respond quickly.
 Virtual infrastructure architecture
• Host: A virtualization layer that manages resources and other services
for virtual machines. Virtual machines run on these individual hosts,
which continuously perform monitoring and management activities in
the background.
• Hypervisor: A software layer that enables one host computer to
simultaneously support multiple virtual operating systems, also
known as virtual machines.
• Virtual machine: These software-defined computers encompass
operating systems, software programs and documents. Managed by a
virtual infrastructure, each virtual machine has its own operating
system called a guest operating system.
User interface: This front-end element means administrators can
view and manage virtual infrastructure components by connecting
directly to the server host or through a browser-based interface.
• Partitioning :
A key benefit of virtualization is the ability to run multiple operating
systems on a single physical system and share the underlying
hardware resources – known as partitioning.
• Today, virtualization can apply to a range of system layers, including
hardware-level virtualization, operating system level virtualization,
and high-level language virtual machines.
• Hardware-level virtualization was pioneered on IBM mainframes in
the 1970s, and then more recently Unix/RISC system vendors began
with hardware-based partitioning capabilities before moving on to
software-based partitioning.
Hosting:
• A hosted approach provides partitioning services on top of a standard
operating system and supports the broadest range of hardware
configurations.
• In contrast, a hypervisor architecture is the first architecture is the
first layer of software installed on a clean x86-based system (hence it
is often referred to as a “bare metal” approach).
• Since it has direct access to the hardware resources, a hypervisor is
more efficient than hosted architectures, enabling greater scalability,
robustness and performance
Hardware-independence
• Virtualization is a broad IT initiative, of which partitioning is just one
facet. Other benefits include the isolation of virtual machines and the
hardware-independence that results from the virtualization process.
• Virtual machines are highly portable, and can be moved or copied to
any industry-standard (x86- based) hardware platform, regardless of
the make or model. Thus, virtualization facilitates adaptive IT
resource management, and greater responsiveness to changing
business conditions