Virtualization simulates hardware functionality purely through software and creates a virtual system. The resulting virtual machine (VM) is a complete virtual computer system that behaves like a physical machine. It runs on software and comes with its own processing unit, memory, and interface. Virtual machines let developers run and test applications on numerous systems without requiring them to purchase separate hardware. This is incredibly convenient and practical when building applications for legacy systems or completely new operating systems. Virtual machines are becoming more popular, with the global VM market forecasted to grow to $4.3 billion by 2026.
How Virtual Machines Work
The architecture of a VM system includes:
1 How Virtual Machines Work2 Characteristics of Virtual Machines3 Types of Virtual Machines4 The Advantages of Virtualization5 The Challenges of Using Virtual Machines6 Endnote
An underlying system constituting the physical machine with its OS. This physical system is known as the hostA thin software hypervisor layer that lets the virtual machines interact with the hardware of the host.VMs that use the resources of the physical system through the hypervisor. VMs are known as guests.Applications that run on the operating systems of virtual machines.
Characteristics of Virtual Machines
Virtual machines have certain key characteristics which contribute to their usefulness:
Virtual machines are isolated from one another, which means that if one of them crashes, the others will remain unaffected. Different virtual machines will neither affect one another’s working nor will they access each other’s space. They are encapsulations of a complete set of resources, including hardware, an operating system, and its applications. This grants them portability as these software packets can be copied onto and stored anywhere. They are independent of the hardware of the system they are running on. This means that you can move them from one computer to the other without having to modify the computer’s drivers or applications. They are completely compatible with all x86 operating systems.
Types of Virtual Machines
The two basic types of virtual machines include: These virtual machines allow you to run a process as an application on the host. Examples include the Parrot Virtual Machine for Perl language, and the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) for Java language. System Virtual Machines are complete substitutes for real machines with functionality that lets them run entire operating systems on the host. Windows Virtual PC is an example of these machines.
The Advantages of Virtualization
Virtualization brings with it multiple benefits for users: Virtualization allows you to transform a server into multiple different VMs that can be running completely different applications. This saves time and ensures that the server’s capacity is utilized to its maximum and efficiently used. Having only one application per server is inefficient, and it means more hardware has to be used for more applications, leading to increased costs. Virtualization solves this problem by allowing multiple VMs to run in an isolated manner on one server, enabling considerable cost savings. In a virtualized environment, damages can be fixed by cloning the affected virtual machine, and the physical server does not have to be fixed. This brings down downtime from days to minutes and improves business continuity. The fewer the servers, the faster they can be updated and the easier it is to update them. Deploying and managing multiple operating systems from a single server is administratively efficient and convenient too. With the increasing focus on carbon dioxide emission reduction, greener solutions are the ethical way to go. Along with the variety of computational and administrative advantages, opting for VMs to reduce servers reduces an organization’s carbon footprint as well.
The Challenges of Using Virtual Machines
Like all other ideas, virtual machines come with their own set of difficulties or inconveniences:
Running multiple virtual machines at the same time can make the system unstable.Virtual machines only simulate an environment; they are not as efficient as real physical machines.Risks like having malware in pre-built virtual machines, isolation failures, and unpatched hypervisors are prevalent.Infrastructure setup for VMs can be complicated and may require experts.Giving access to multiple users poses security and data breach threats.
Endnote
Virtual technologies are invaluable in how they allow incompatible subsystems to work together, facilitating testing and programming immensely. Organizations can significantly get time and cost savings by leveraging virtualization while minimizing the hardware they need to employ. These benefits are not only reserved for enterprises and businesses but are equally important to developers.If you’ve developed an application or maybe would like to check a system’s response to a virus, you can get a virtual machine to test it out without investing in a separate computer system. Follow the link to Correlium’s iOS virtual machine to spin up an iPhone in minutes.
