The 5 Main Types of Virtualization Technology

The 5 Main Types of Virtualization Technology

In this article we are going to explore what are the 5 main types of virtualization and we are going to emphasize on the first two methods – Storage Virtualization and Network Virtualization.

Despite the “noise” around virtualisation in recent years, virtualisation is not a new technological innovation. There are four the main reasons that have been the drivers for the movement of virtualization from hosts (mainframes) to current computing environments.

  • The lack of usability to exploit unused (unutilized) material.
  • The large increase in natural space required by the spread of data centres.
  • The increasing demand for energy compared to the corresponding increase in acquisition costs.
  • Increasing the cost of managing information systems.

Looking at these four main reasons, we understand why virtualization is very important. The most common type virtualization is platform virtualization.

By virtualization platform we mean what allows, the virtualization of servers (VPS Hosting) and desktop. However, from the platform virtualisation, IT organisations use other types of virtualisation, in other areas to meet other needs that exist. We can therefore summarise the formulas in the following:

  • Storage Virtualization
  • Network Virtualization
  • Server Virtualization
  • Application Virtualization
  • Desktop Virtualization

The following sections will present in more detail the first two virtualization methods – Storage Virtualization and Network Virtualization. We will present the remaining three Virtualization methods another time.

Storage Virtualization

Storage virtualization means logic presentation of physical multi-storage devices. RAID Technology opened up new perspectives on the image-ization of storage but the managing hundreds of gigabytes of even terabytes of storage prove problematic. RAID technology enables you to set two or more physical disks to appear as one logical disk. For the operating system, the presentation of physical disks as a logical disk is a simple virtualized solution storage.

Network Virtualization

Network virtualization is a method used to combining computer network resources into a single platform; known as virtual network. This is achieved with the help of software and services that enable the sharing network resources. This technology uses a method of similar to the virtualisation process used to simulation of virtual machines within physical computers. A virtual network considers all hardware and software on the network as a single collection of resources, which can be accessed independently of the natural limits.

Edward Powell