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F. Firouzi and B. Farahani
4.10 Virtualization
Virtualization is the foundational technology that brought the vision of Cloud
computing to life. Virtualization includes the creation of a virtual (as opposed to
an actual) form of something such as storage devices, network, and computing
resources. Virtualization began in the 1960s, as a means of virtually portioning
the mainframe’s system resources across various applications. Since that time, the
concept of virtualization has expanded. A few key benefits of virtualization include:
• Cost-Efficiency – Due to fear that an application may crash and take down
another application running on the same machine, companies will often only run
one application on a server. Current estimates suggest that most servers utilize
only 10–15% of their total capacity. However, virtualization allows for a single
physical server that would generally have only one purpose to function as a
computing pool with many virtual servers, able to adapt to evolving workloads.
• Energy Savings – Powering servers that are utilizing only a small portion of
their capacity can cost businesses significantly. Virtualization helps to reduce
the number of actual servers required and lowers the amount of energy needed to
cool and power them.
• Efficient IT Operations – Virtualization empowers IT professionals to work
with more agility and efficiency, which lessens the time and effort needed to
maintain resources. For example, IT professionals can easily complete archiving,
recovery, or backups with greater speed and ease. Prior to the widespread use
of virtualization, it could take weeks for a technical team to install and maintain
software or devices on physical servers.
4.10.1 Main Categories of Virtualization
There are three main categories of virtualization, namely, network virtualization,
storage virtualization, and computing server virtualization.
• Network Virtualization: Network virtualization unites all necessary physical
networking components into one, software-based resource while separating the
bandwidth into many, and independent logical channels that can be allocated to
devices and servers in real time.
• Storage Virtualization: Storage virtualization is the collection of physical storage
from many storage devices into what looks like one logical storage device
manageable from a centralized computer. In short, storage virtualization requires
adding a software layer that abstracts the details of the underlying physical
storage devices from users while allowing all storage devices to be managed as a
logical pool.
• Server Virtualization (Hardware Virtualization): Currently, server virtualization
is likely the most widely utilized kind of virtualization. Server virtualization
F. Firouzi and B. Farahani
4.10 Virtualization
Virtualization is the foundational technology that brought the vision of Cloud
computing to life. Virtualization includes the creation of a virtual (as opposed to
an actual) form of something such as storage devices, network, and computing
resources. Virtualization began in the 1960s, as a means of virtually portioning
the mainframe’s system resources across various applications. Since that time, the
concept of virtualization has expanded. A few key benefits of virtualization include:
• Cost-Efficiency – Due to fear that an application may crash and take down
another application running on the same machine, companies will often only run
one application on a server. Current estimates suggest that most servers utilize
only 10–15% of their total capacity. However, virtualization allows for a single
physical server that would generally have only one purpose to function as a
computing pool with many virtual servers, able to adapt to evolving workloads.
• Energy Savings – Powering servers that are utilizing only a small portion of
their capacity can cost businesses significantly. Virtualization helps to reduce
the number of actual servers required and lowers the amount of energy needed to
cool and power them.
• Efficient IT Operations – Virtualization empowers IT professionals to work
with more agility and efficiency, which lessens the time and effort needed to
maintain resources. For example, IT professionals can easily complete archiving,
recovery, or backups with greater speed and ease. Prior to the widespread use
of virtualization, it could take weeks for a technical team to install and maintain
software or devices on physical servers.
4.10.1 Main Categories of Virtualization
There are three main categories of virtualization, namely, network virtualization,
storage virtualization, and computing server virtualization.
• Network Virtualization: Network virtualization unites all necessary physical
networking components into one, software-based resource while separating the
bandwidth into many, and independent logical channels that can be allocated to
devices and servers in real time.
• Storage Virtualization: Storage virtualization is the collection of physical storage
from many storage devices into what looks like one logical storage device
manageable from a centralized computer. In short, storage virtualization requires
adding a software layer that abstracts the details of the underlying physical
storage devices from users while allowing all storage devices to be managed as a
logical pool.
• Server Virtualization (Hardware Virtualization): Currently, server virtualization
is likely the most widely utilized kind of virtualization. Server virtualization