Virtualization
Table of Contents
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtualization
Hardware virtualization is the virtualization of computers as complete hardware platforms, certain logical abstractions of their componentry, or only the functionality required to run various operating systems. Virtualization hides the physical characteristics of a computing platform from the users, presenting instead an abstract computing platform. At its origins, the software that controlled virtualization was called a “control program”, but the terms “hypervisor” or “virtual machine monitor” became preferred over time.
Examples
- VDE platforms provided by companies
- AWS EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud)
- Azure Virtual Machines (VMs)
Analogy
- Think of a host as an apartment building on the same land
- And a virtual machine as an apartment in that building
- You are using common services like water, garbage, sewer, electricity - provided by the landlord (Azure, AWS, etc.)
- Additional services are available - if necessary - like shared gym, landscaping and snow removal
- It is generally cheaper to rent an apartment than to own a house
- When we are inside the apartment, it is hard to tell the difference between renting and owning
Virtual machines
- IaaS
- Take an existing machine from your environment into the cloud - a copy
- Windows or Linux operating systems - several of each
- A “slice” of physical machine shared with other customers
- Full control over it, as if it was your machine.