What is virtualization?

Using 'virtual' versions of physical things has become more and more popular in recent years, but what is virtualization, exactly?

In essence, it's the process of turning hardware into a software equivalent without sacrificing functionality, the most common deployment being virtual servers instead of physical servers. It's largely used as a way of saving space, cutting costs, and improving functionality and security.

There's also the added benefit of creating extra capabilities on top of existing hardware. For example, virtualization can be used to take the machine's storage or some of its capabilities and divide them across a number of virtual machines.

What is virtualization?

The best way to think of virtualization is to imagine five physical computers, each running their own isolated operating systems and software services. Each device can work separately on different tasks, but through virtualization, you’re able to unlink each operating system (OS) and its software from each terminal and combine them into one single entity, or ‘host computer’. This can maintain separate software packages and run individual devices if it has to.

Separate virtual software instances are known as virtual machines (VMs) and are managed and coordinated by a single physical machine. This central computer utilizes a ‘hypervisor’, which is a software platform the computer can use to manage resource allocation across each VM. Through this hypervisor, it can share important elements like network bandwidth, memory usage, CPU cycles, as well as other computing resources.

These five computers we've imagined can, through virtualization, be merged into a single combined machine while at the same time preserving their individuality, allowing workers to use them separately.

VMs are particularly handy for testing new operating systems, accessing legacy software and operating systems, creating and testing applications in a separate computing environment, and much more.

VMware is one of the leading providers of virtualization software and technologies, offering Workstation Pro for Windows and Linux users and Fusion Pro for Mac users. Microsoft is another big player in this space, with Hyper-V and Azure Virtual Desktop. Other top VM platforms include Citrix Hypervisor, VirtualBox, and Parallels Desktop.

We have a handy guide on configuring Hyper-V on Windows 10 and 11 if you want to have a go yourself.

Virtualization terminology

Virtual machines (VMs)

Virtual machines are one of the elementary units of virtualization. This is best imagined as an independently functioning computer, except that it lacks a normally expected physical presence. A virtual machine, when deployed, can open an additional operating system on a single device, and that's including its own software.

The VM's working is independent of the host, meaning that it won't be affected if something goes wrong with the hardware used to access it. At the same time, since it's separate, the virtual machine can't influence the running of the 'host' computer.

Virtual memory

To ensure VMs work as smoothly as possible, it's pretty vital there's a high level of virtual memory available on the host computer.

This helps applications to improve overall performance and store and receive data. It's enabled by small additions to a machine's hardware, called segments or pages, that store the extra data a physical machine cannot.

Virtual desktop infrastructure

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), is where an organization purchases virtual desktops hosted by a third-party vendor and therefore don't have to deploy the technology on its on-premises infrastructure, lowering its costs and simplifying deployments.

According to Nick McQuire, VP of enterprise research at CCS Insight, the development of Desktop as a Service, or DaaS, has proved very popular.

"Virtual desktops and applications have been trending within enterprise IT for over a decade, ever since the growth in remote working has increased the need for mobile workstations, strongly encouraging many organizations to implement the technology," he says.

"As virtual desktops aren't hosted locally on the users' devices, an organization can distribute stripped-down machines, known as thin clients, with access to company applications and data in the data centre to cut down on hardware costs and simplify management."

Virtual applications

Many of the merits of virtual desktops also apply to app virtualization, which allows users to access apps without storing them locally and businesses to have more control over their usage.

"New uses of the technology have opened up the virtualization of third-party specific applications such as Microsoft's Skype for Business or browsing," McQuire says. "Security requirements and compliance changes such as GDPR have also helped as more firms look for more control and visibility of the apps their employees use."

"As more organizations look to upgrade the 300 million or more PCs in enterprises that are over five years old, they are embracing newer PC platforms. The likes of Google Chromebooks and Microsoft's Windows 10 are growing heavily in the public sector in the US."

What are the benefits of virtualization?

Investing in virtualization technologies offers a wide range of benefits for businesses of all sizes and industries.

Resources

For starters, it can help companies reduce their overall IT spending and reallocate funds to other areas of the business. That’s because you can run all manner of IT resources — such as operating systems, applications, storage devices, and network devices — virtually from a single host computer, rather than purchasing several non-virtualized servers or pieces of hardware.

Resilience

Virtualization is an excellent way of improving the operational resilience of your business. If a virtual machine is damaged or faulty, you can clone it and get it back up and running within minutes. When a physical server experiences issues, you’ll need to get it fixed or replaced. These things will take a significant amount of time and money, eating into valuable business resources and causing downtime.

Security

Virtual machines can also contribute to the provision of robust enterprise cyber security. VMs are isolated by design, providing a safe environment in which to analyze potentially malicious files and processes. This also makes it very difficult for attackers to move laterally across an environment, should a VM become compromised.

Elasticity

Because new virtual machines can be installed, updated, and maintained easily and quickly, businesses can scale up or scale down their IT resources as their needs and requirements change over time. Virtualization technologies are an excellent option for enterprises embarking on a digital or cloud transformation journey.

Centralization

With virtualization, IT departments don’t need to waste valuable time maintaining numerous physical servers. Instead, they can maintain every virtual machine from one virtualized environment and, consequently, experience productivity gains that benefit the entire business.

Sustainability

Owning several physical servers is not only expensive and time-consuming but also bad for the environment because of the amount of power they consume. Migrating to a virtualized computing environment will help businesses consume less energy and ultimately meet their net-zero goals.