Business benefits of virtualization in cloud

“Virtual environments are supposed to move to the cloud: Over 45% of the business will plan or consider moving their entire server virtualization environment to the cloud in the coming years”                                               – R. Raghuram, CEO, VMware vSphere (world’s leading virtualization technology, 2022). 

The worldwide public cloud computing industry is estimated to reach 482 billion USD by the end of the year 2022. From digital business management to software development, infrastructure, security, and advertising, the digital transformation in business has led to cloud service delivering every process you are familiar with. Thus the concept of virtualization and cloud computing is already ruling the market with its infinite applications. 

Experts say that “Virtualization is the foundation of cloud computing,” which is probably why modern startups and enterprises virtualize their business processes for cost reduction and higher capacity utilization. 

Since it’s high time for every business to drive virtualization changes in their process, a detailed article on virtualization in cloud computing will help you understand the applications and potential benefits of implementing virtualization. Let’s start by addressing the fundamental concept of virtualization in a business landscape. 

What is virtualization? 

In simple terms, virtualization is a creation of a virtual environment of pre-existing environments such as network resources, operating systems, servers, storage devices, and desktops. You can share a single physical instance of an application or resource among multiple units and organizations through the virtualization technique. 

The concept of virtualization is a standard business practice, especially in cloud computing technology, where you can follow a multi-layered commuting approach and maximize your business’s hardware use.

Virtualization also aids multiple applications and operating systems to run on the same machine and hardware subsequently. Now, the use of virtualization in a business landscape is extensive, with immense applications and positive results. Let’s throw light on the various types of virtualization solutions available for digital enterprises. 

The Concept of Virtualization in Cloud Computing

In the broad context of cloud computing, virtualization is a technique to create a virtual ecosystem of the server operating system (OS) and storage devices. The purpose of creating virtual machines is to enable cloud users to purchase only necessary resources when they actually need them and sustain those resources cost-efficiently when the workload expands. 

Today, virtualization and cloud computing are globally adopted by IT architecture enterprises and digital businesses to deliver multiple OS services (Windows, Linux, physical hardware, etc.) to their users simultaneously. 

Since cloud computing application development is considered a service in the modern perspective, assisting a virtualized ecosystem in the cloud can reduce the necessity of physical resources in your business. Moreover, you have the option to keep it either public or private depending on the type of OS the cloud virtualization is operating on. 

This exhibits how essential is the role of virtualization in cloud computing ultimately leads to an economical and scalable business model. 

Next, we need to explore the properties and features of virtualization in cloud computing.

Characteristic Features of Virtualization in Cloud Computing 

Before you decide to integrate the virtualization technique into your cloud server, it’s vital to know what properties you are looking for in your virtual environment. Especially when it comes to virtualizing your cloud, you need to be extra stagnant with the features your virtual machine will exhibit. Below are the primary characteristic features of virtualization in cloud computing to give a brief idea. 

Isolation

Virtualization must deliver guest programs with a completely isolated and separated environment, be it an application or an operating system. Usually, the programs on the cloud interact with an abstraction layer provisioning access to the underlying resources. 

The virtualization process filters the activity and prevents malicious acts against the host. Thus the purpose of the virtual environment is to control the performance of the guest program by finely tuning the resources. 

Resource distribution 

Whether your business relies on a network of connected servers or a single computer, the role of virtualization in cloud computing is to create a unique computing environment from one host machine. This machine further gives you the authority to restrict participants as active users easily control and scale the consumption of various resources. 

Aggregation 

Since virtualization features the allowance of several devices to split resources from a single machine, you can also aggregate your multiple devices into a single parent host. Moreover, aggregation also asks for cluster management software to associate a homogenous group of servers or computers with making a unified resource center. 

Security and authenticity 

A promising virtualization process will transparently increase the host’s ability to control the guest program execution. Virtual machines in the cloud also manage and filter the guest program activities, which in turn prevents the possibility of unauthentic harmful operations. On top of that, virtual platforms automatically balance a load of multiple servers, preventing interruption and assuring continuous uptime. 

Availability

Virtualization on cloud platforms offers various features that you cannot leverage from physical servers. The use of virtualization helps with fault tolerance, availability, increasing uptime, and many more scalable benefits.

Shareability 

Saving the key feature for the end, shareability is the most crucial characteristic of virtualized machines where you can create a separate computing environment within the same host. This is how you can minimize the number of active servers and save on power consumption. 

Now that we are familiar with the significant features of virtualization in cloud computing, you are all ready to see what kind of virtualization solutions you can leverage for your digital business. 

Types of Virtualization Solutions in Cloud computing

When your business runs its aspects on a cloud computing platform, all of your resources are carefully monitored, managed, and optimized by virtual machines. This is why virtualization is supported by more than one solution to support every organization’s needs. 

Below are the examples of virtualization solutions you can utilize: 

Application Virtualization 

Under this process, the virtual applications are disjointed from the physical infrastructure instead of running on it directly. They are made to run through a virtualization layer where it can transfer the physical resources of the device to the application. 

When your virtual business applications are combined with other virtualization tools, you can run your application from any underlying OS. 

For instance, you can run your Linux application through a virtual ecosystem on a Windows OS. 

Operating System (OS) Virtualization

OS virtualization allows the installation of multiple operating systems on one server or workstation. Under this, you can install another OS as a subset of the original machine instead of one OS being the base level system. 

Here, each operating system on a machine is separated from the other OS and is secured in a containerized manner. 

Imagine being able to run multiple OS on one machine and saving on space, infrastructure, electricity, and additional devices. 

Storage Virtualization 

For modern startups and enterprises, storage virtualization in cloud computing is a common practice. It is the technique of abstracting the storage infrastructure from the underlying physical resource.

Storage in a virtual environment allows simpler transfer of data and files, more centralized management, and efficient virtualization and cloud computing setup. 

Administrative Virtualization 

This virtualization is one of a kind since it is more related to managing access and permissions for devices and servers. Administrative virtualization is used explicitly in data centers where admin roles are separated through a virtual layer to separate user roles and define privilege actions. 

Server Virtualization 

Server virtualization in cloud computing functions pretty much the same way as storage virtualization, except it deals with more processing than storing. Here, each server can be run independently from others, and your applications do not need to know which physical server they are drawing resources from. 

Desktop Virtualization 

You might already be familiar with the concept of desktop virtualization since it is one of the most trending solutions in the business world. It is used when your physical location keeps changing, or workforces are more mobile. You can access the virtual desktops from the cloud and transfer the data quickly through different locations. 

The number of solutions available for virtualization in the market proves how beneficial the concept is for any business. This brings us to our next point of discussion “ what are the benefits of virtualization in cloud computing?”

Benefits of Virtualization in Cloud Computing 

The advantages of virtualization in business are infinite, and this is probably why the process is so prevalent in large cloud computing spaces. Let’s explore some of the benefits you gain by virtualizing your business cloud infrastructure. 

Machine-data transfer flexibility

One of the greatest upsides of using virtualization is the easy transfer of data between servers and devices. With virtual environments, you don’t need to search through data centers or various physical hard drives to find the data you need.

When you have virtualized storage and desktop solutions, you can also transfer an entire machine from one location to another without actually moving any physical infrastructure. Talk about saving time, money, and energy here.  

Failure protection 

Virtualization in cloud computing can prevent your entire system from failure. This is because virtualized infrastructure is isolated into containers, where if one part of the system fails, the other part will keep functioning without any damage. 

Enterprises usually follow virtualization when testing a new program or various kinds of software. Testing inside a virtual environment can help secure the rest of your IT environment from bugs, crashes, and other issues. 

Easy DevOps

With a traditional hardware-based ecosystem, you usually have to worry about maintenance and updates. Virtualization solves these issues by providing on-demand access to an infinite replicated virtual machine to improve software security and expedite updates. This also maintains an efficient pipeline with development, testing, and deployment. 

Cost efficiency 

Cloud computing power can be expensive depending on your business model and data needs. On top of that, with additional resources, your model can get hefty. With virtualization techniques on your cloud, you can easily identify idle resources in your existing infrastructure and remove them. 

Moreover, virtualization costs are relatively lower than the cost of purchasing and maintaining additional hardware. 

Streamlined operations and processing 

This cannot be stretched enough that virtualization in cloud computing makes the management process centralized where all the resources can be operated smoothly. Cloud computing and virtualization are by far the most efficient combination for streamlining the operational strategy on a large scale. 

Not to forget the additional time saved on installations, patching, maintenance, and repair. In any case of damage or failure, the backup and recovery take the least time possible to manage downtime. 

Apart from this, the additional benefits of virtualization include efficiency and resilience, where you can easily copy and clone your virtual machines. 

Adopting Virtualization for Your Cloud Network

The benefits of virtualization in cloud computing can be scaled to full potential once we know what appropriate tools can be utilized. One commonly used tool in the virtualizing process is Hypervisor. It is a low-level program that acts as a virtual machine manager and can virtualize your system, storage, and networking hardware. Other preferred solutions are virtualization performance management tools and capacity planning tools. 

If you are not already implementing virtualization techniques in your business, it’s time to analyze your cloud infrastructure critically. To help ensure your cloud virtualization, we recommend seeking reliable cloud computing services. 

How can Appinventiv help? 

Appinventiv selects a model that aligns with your business requirements. Whether your apps are running on a third-party service or with on-premise data centers, we can help you deliver the most scalable and secure cloud solutions. Connect with us to discover tailor-made cloud and virtualization solutions for your business.

FAQs

Q. What should you look for in a virtualization provider?

A. Ask these questions before considering a particular virtualization provider. 

• Can the visualization solution help businesses in the long run? 
• What type of ecosystem support would exist for the virtualization solution? 
• Will the virtualization solution support flexibility?

Q. How is cloud computing different from virtualization?

A. Simply put, cloud computing in business is all about the delivery of computing services including storage, servers, networking, databases, analytics, software, and intelligence over the internet or cloud for offering faster innovation and flexible resources for economies to scale.

Q. Are there any disadvantages of virtualization?

A. Yes, there are limited disadvantages or cons of virtualization. Here are some of them. 

• There is a lack of skilled resource availability that helps in terms of the transition of actual or existing setup to virtual setup. 
• The transition of existing hardware to a virtualized setup needs a lot of time and hence, this can be regarded as a time-consuming process. 
• If the transition task is not being handled meticulously, then it would pose a greater security risk for sensitive data. 
• Since there is a limitation of skilled resource availability, the implementation of a virtual setup leads to high-cost implementations.

Q. What are the three virtualization techniques?

A. There are three main techniques for the virtualization of hardware resources. These are. 

Server virtualization: This is the process of making resources available for the physical server to remote users. You need to install virtual machine software into a server which would then allow it to act as multiple servers on demand. This kind of virtualization technique is quite popular and feasible as it frees users from having to manage complex server systems.

Storage virtualization: This allows the combination of numerous physical storage devices for creating a single storage, much larger area. 

Client or desktop virtualization: This concept was popular long before the cloud came into the mainstream. It refers to the act of building a virtual desktop separated from the server hardware computer. This allows the building of a desktop environment that can be remotely accessed similar to the SaaS model of cloud computing. These are also known as the “cloud-hosted virtual desktop”.

Q. Do you provide virtualization services?

A. Our virtualization phases are extremely thought out and proven by experience. Our software development experts specialize in making IT environments more robust, scalable, and agile, thereby reducing the overall cost. 

With our virtualization services, your business will experience increased workload mobility, resource availability, performance, and process automation. Connect with our experts to discover the best virtualization solution for your business.

THE AUTHOR

Sudeep Srivastava

Co-Founder and Director