Virtualization

Last updated Nov 8, 2022 Edit Source

A technique that uses software called Hypervisor (virtual machine manager or VMM) to create abstraction of hardware.

• Hardware is divided into multiple virtual computers, called Virtual Machines (VMs)
• Each VM runs its own OS, called Guest OS, and behaves like an independent computer! Application processes can run on the guest OS as if it is an independent computer
• Each VM is using only a portion of the actual hardware

More efficient utilisation of hardware

• Cost effective hardware deployment and sharing
• Low latency and agile execution environments
• Failure mitigation (VM independence and migrations) Enables cloud computing

Software layer required for managing the virtualization