Hi. I would like to know about virtualization. What is the concept of virtualization all about and what are the advantages and disadvantages of virtualization? Also, what are the different types of virtualization prevailing today?
Let us first throw light on the concept of virtualization. Virtualization can be thought of as the partitioning of a drive to support numerous computers to share the same resources. There are two types of virtualization:
1) Desktop Virtualization- In this type, without the use of any hardware device such as a monitor, keyboard, etc., and a connection can be set up to the host server with the use of LAN.
2) Hardware Virtualization- This type involves the creation of a virtual machine which works similarly as a real computer.
The advantages and disadvantages of virtualization are as follows-
Advantages:
• It leads to the reduction of cost as due to virtualization there is less consumption of hardware, less power consumption and there is no need for overtime which leads to overhead cost as the employees can get the work done faster thereby saving on time.
• With the help of virtualization, the infrastructure cost too is cut down because on a single host multiple servers can be run and diverse applications are used on a single server instead of deploying many servers.
• Since there is virtual backup involved, the files which get corrupted over time can be backed up easily.
• There are many applications of virtualization, one of which is in the hospitals in providing online access to medical records to the doctors thereby reducing the cost.
Disadvantages:
• Virtual servers involve a little more cost to their development and maintenance.
• There can be a problem if an investment has already been made but the servers or applications do not support virtualization.
• Not everyone can work with virtual servers. Money needs to be spent for the training of employees for the same.
