Cloud computing and virtualisation have transformed how companies operate, offering unprecedented flexibility, scalability, and cost-effectiveness. Cloud computing is the delivery of computing services over the internet, such as storage, servers, databases, networking, software, analytics, and intelligence. This eliminates the need for businesses to own and maintain their own IT infrastructure. Virtualisation is the creation of virtual resources such as servers and networks on a single physical machine. This allows several operating systems and applications to run concurrently on a single hardware platform. These two technologies often go together and understanding how they complement each other will help maximise their individual and collective potential.
There are two main kinds of virtualisation for cloud computing. Hypervisor-Based virtualisation is the most common type used in cloud computing. A hypervisor (also known as a virtual machine monitor) creates and manages virtual machines on a physical server. The other is containerisation. Containers are lightweight virtualisation environments that share the host operating system's kernel. They are often used for deploying applications and microservices in cloud-native environments.
Virtualisation is the backbone of cloud computing. It enables the dynamic allocation of resources, on-demand provisioning, and pay-as-you-go pricing models that define cloud services. There are several benefits for cloud computing. Through resource pooling, cloud providers can bring together resources such as servers, storage, and networking equipment. These providers can use virtualisation to divide these resources into smaller, virtual instances to be allocated to customers or applications based on their needs. Additionally, businesses can allocate new virtual machines or other resources as needed. Virtualisation also enables cloud services to be highly elastic. Businesses can then scale their infrastructure to meet demand and changes in workload, paying only for the resources they use.
The union of virtualisation and cloud computing has produced success stories. Netflix uses Amazon Web Services to leverage a massive public cloud infrastructure to deliver its content to millions of subscribers worldwide. Netflix can scale its resources based on demand, ensuring a seamless viewing experience. Hospitals also use server virtualisation to merge multiple physical servers into one virtual environment. This helps to reduce hardware costs, improve performance, and simplify management. Lastly, e-commerce businesses such as Shopify, Etsy and Amazon use cloud-based virtual environments to handle peak traffic during sales periods. They can quickly allocate additional virtual servers to meet increased demand without needing additional hardware like computers.
Virtualisation is a fundamental building block of cloud computing. It provides the flexibility, scalability, and cost-effectiveness that have made cloud services so popular among businesses. By understanding how virtualisation works and its role in enabling cloud services, customers can better appreciate the transformative power of these technologies.
Comments