



Virtualization 101


Virtualization uses software to simulate the existence of hardware and create a virtual computer system. Doing this allows businesses to run more than one virtual system – and multiple operating systems and applications — on a single server. This can provide economies of scale and greater efficiency.

The Virtual Machine



Key Properties of Virtual Machines

VMs have the following characteristics, which offer several benefits.


Run multiple operating systems on one physical machine
Divide system resources between virtual machines


Provide fault and security isolation at the hardware level
Preserve performance with advanced resource controls


Save the entire state of a virtual machine to files
Move and copy virtual machines as easily as moving and copying files

Hardware Independence

Provision or migrate any virtual machine to any physical server

Server Consolidation


It’s Not Cloud Computing



Server Virtualization

Most servers operate at less than 15 percent of capacity, leading to server sprawl and complexity. Server virtualization addresses these inefficiencies by allowing multiple operating systems to run on a single physical server as virtual machines, each with access to the underlying server’s computing resources.

The next step is to aggregate a server cluster into a single consolidated resource – which improves overall efficiency and reduces cost. Server virtualization also enables faster workload deployment, increased application performance, and higher availability.

Network Virtualization

Network virtualization is the complete reproduction of a physical network in software. Applications run on the virtual network exactly the same as if on a physical network. Network virtualization presents logical networking devices and services—logical ports, switches, routers, firewalls, load balancers, VPNs and more—to connected workloads. Virtual networks offer the same features and guarantees of a physical network with the operational benefits and hardware independence of virtualization.

Desktop Virtualization
