The advantages of virtualization provide many benefits to consumers. This section discussesthe operational and financial advantages of computing infrastructure virtualization.Better Utilization of Existing Resources:Physical computing resources have become advancedand powerful with time. In traditional computing, one machine instance runs on a physicalserver which hardly utilizes the whole power of the system. Thus, most of the processingpower simply remain unutilized for most of the computer systems. Running multiple virtualmachines on one physical server makes better utilization of the resources and this is known asserver consolidation.Reduction in Hardware Cost:As virtualization makes better use of physical resources byrunning multiple virtual machines on single set of physical resources, automatically cost ofcomputing comes down. If server consolidation can be combined with capacity planning inplanned manner, investment for hardware resources may reduce drastically as well.Reduction in Computing Infrastructure Costs:Reduced physical computing resourcerequirements in turn reduces many other associated assets, like physical floor space, powerrequirement, cooling system and human resource to administrate the systems. Increases in thenumber of virtual machines over existing physical resources do not add to any of these loads Improved Fault Tolerance orZero Downtime Maintenance:The decoupling of virtualmachines from specific hardware resources increases the portability of system. In cases of anyhardware failure, the virtual system can be migrated to another physical setup. This helps tobuild fault tolerant system by creating scope forzero downtime maintenance.Simplified System Administration:Virtualization segments the management of thesystems into two groups as physical resources management and virtual system management.Centralized monitoring package can be employed to keep track of health of the systems andraise alert in case of need. As managingvirtual computing resources is less critical thanphysical resource and there are less physical machines, the system administration tasksbecome easier.Simplified Capacity Expansion:Capacities of virtual resources are easier to increase thanexpanding and then synchronizing physical computing resources. This also becomes possibledue to the decoupling of physical resources from virtual systems.Simplified System Installation:Installation of a new system has become easier, cost-effectiveand hassle-free in virtual environment. A new system can be installed almost within no timeby cloning a virtual machine instance. Fresh installation is much easier too than physicalmachine installation.Support forLegacy Systems and Applications:Research institutes or other organizationssometimes need to run legacy software packages which can no longer be run on presentlyavailable operating system or hardware platforms. Virtualization is the only solution to tacklethis kind of scenarios as any kind of VMs (includinglegacy systems) can easily be created todeploy required legacy applications over them.Simplified System-Level Development:System software (like device driver) development andtesting require frequent re-booting of the system. This is easier and faster in virtual environmentsince VM rebooting does not require physical machine to restart and can be performed withsome clicks of mouse.Simplified System and Application Testing:Performance testing of system software beforeits release is a rigorous job and requires to test the software on all supported platforms. This isa difficult situation since it requires all of those hardware platforms and operating systems totest the software. Virtualization eases this process by eliminating much of the time and effortrequired for system installation and configuration. Application or system software testing isone of the biggest beneficiaries of virtualization.Security:Virtualization adds a layer of abstraction over physical hardware. Virtual machinescannot directly access physical resources any more. This can restrict the amount of destructionthat might occur when some malicious software attempts to damage the system or corruptdata. For example, if an entire virtual hard disk gets damaged or corrupted, the actual physicaldisk remains unaffected
The benefits of virtualization directly propagate into cloud computing and have empowered itas well
The advantages of virtualization provide many benefits to consumers. This section discussesthe operational and financial advantages of computing infrastructure virtualization.Better Utilization of Existing Resources:Physical computing resources have become advancedand powerful with time. In traditional computing, one machine instance runs on a physicalserver which hardly utilizes the whole power of the system. Thus, most of the processingpower simply remain unutilized for most of the computer systems. Running multiple virtualmachines on one physical server makes better utilization of the resources and this is known asserver consolidation.Reduction in Hardware Cost:As virtualization makes better use of physical resources byrunning multiple virtual machines on single set of physical resources, automatically cost ofcomputing comes down. If server consolidation can be combined with capacity planning inplanned manner, investment for hardware resources may reduce drastically as well.Reduction in Computing Infrastructure Costs:Reduced physical computing resourcerequirements in turn reduces many other associated assets, like physical floor space, powerrequirement, cooling system and human resource to administrate the systems. Increases in thenumber of virtual machines over existing physical resources do not add to any of these loads Improved Fault Tolerance orZero Downtime Maintenance:The decoupling of virtualmachines from specific hardware resources increases the portability of system. In cases of anyhardware failure, the virtual system can be migrated to another physical setup. This helps tobuild fault tolerant system by creating scope forzero downtime maintenance.Simplified System Administration:Virtualization segments the management of thesystems into two groups as physical resources management and virtual system management.Centralized monitoring package can be employed to keep track of health of the systems andraise alert in case of need. As managingvirtual computing resources is less critical thanphysical resource and there are less physical machines, the system administration tasksbecome easier.Simplified Capacity Expansion:Capacities of virtual resources are easier to increase thanexpanding and then synchronizing physical computing resources. This also becomes possibledue to the decoupling of physical resources from virtual systems.Simplified System Installation:Installation of a new system has become easier, cost-effectiveand hassle-free in virtual environment. A new system can be installed almost within no timeby cloning a virtual machine instance. Fresh installation is much easier too than physicalmachine installation.Support forLegacy Systems and Applications:Research institutes or other organizationssometimes need to run legacy software packages which can no longer be run on presentlyavailable operating system or hardware platforms. Virtualization is the only solution to tacklethis kind of scenarios as any kind of VMs (includinglegacy systems) can easily be created todeploy required legacy applications over them.Simplified System-Level Development:System software (like device driver) development andtesting require frequent re-booting of the system. This is easier and faster in virtual environmentsince VM rebooting does not require physical machine to restart and can be performed withsome clicks of mouse.Simplified System and Application Testing:Performance testing of system software beforeits release is a rigorous job and requires to test the software on all supported platforms. This isa difficult situation since it requires all of those hardware platforms and operating systems totest the software. Virtualization eases this process by eliminating much of the time and effortrequired for system installation and configuration. Application or system software testing isone of the biggest beneficiaries of virtualization.Security:Virtualization adds a layer of abstraction over physical hardware. Virtual machinescannot directly access physical resources any more. This can restrict the amount of destructionthat might occur when some malicious software attempts to damage the system or corruptdata. For example, if an entire virtual hard disk gets damaged or corrupted, the actual physicaldisk remains unaffected
The benefits of virtualization directly propagate into cloud computing and have empowered itas well