In my college days I met a couple of concepts that seemed spectacular to me: the cloud and virtual machines. I did not know, due to my inexperience, that they were to some extent related concepts, they were only useful to me. We have already talked too much about the cloud and cloud computing in general, that is why today I will comment on virtualization.
Virtualization consists of the creation of virtual computer systems, with its own operating system and applications, as if it were a common computer (or not so common) that any user knows. What is the wonderful thing? Well, these "creations" called "virtual machines" are hosted on a "host" that provides part of its resources for its operation. We can summarize this as "a computer within another computer."
In my student days this helped me to carry out the assigned assignments, such as the installation of servers or the management of integrated systems with a complete work team. Even just for fun (and even nostalgia) in the installation of old operating systems such as Windows 95 or in other cases in the installation of my current operating system to test without affecting my own system of current use.
Beyond the anecdotal topic, I want to tell you about some benefits of virtualization:
1) Savings in Information Technology infrastructure
You see, in some companies it is an essential requirement to have one or more servers (whether they are for applications, emails, etc.) and managing your purchase can be really tedious, as well as stressful because technology improves every year. Virtualization at this point allows you to create multiple virtual machines on the same server so that each one of them fulfills a different function. In this way, instead of buying 3 servers you would buy 1 strong enough for the requirements of your virtual machine.
2) Easy maintenance
For the aforementioned, you would not need to perform physical maintenance of servers but only of your host machine. this way you consume less time in maintenance and the start-up is much faster.
3) Lower power consumption
This point is a bit obvious, less physical machines, less consumption.
4) Easy management
Over time you will realize that your virtual machines may need more power, but increasing the RAM or storage space is really easy. Simply enter your administrative panel and increase its specifications. As simple as that.
And how is Virtualization and Cloud Computing related? Well, the cloud services that you may be using at the moment are actually virtual machines from your service provider, hence it is really easy to increase power to your cloud servers just by requesting a plan change. They are not time consuming changes and are ready for action in an instant. A clear example is the services of Amazon Web Services or Google Cloud Platform.
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