Many IT professionals have repeatedly come across such a concept as “hardware virtualization”. And this is not at all accidental, since here we have to deal with a constant increase in the power of equipment. What is virtualization? What is it like? What are its main advantages and disadvantages? Let's try to find out.
The term “virtualization” means the process of presenting a set of strictly defined information data. As a result, benefits appear that are not available in the initial system configuration.
For a clearer perception, it should be noted that the process is divided into two areas, one of which is virtualization at the OS level (software), and the second is hardware virtualization (server).
Until recently, software virtualization was more popular because it allowed to obtain technological solutions. However, at this point in time, support for virtualization (hardware) has greatly increased, which allowed it to quickly move its predecessor from the leading position. The decisive role here was played by increasing the performance and power of the system.
Hardware virtualization. Benefits
1. A fairly simple development of platforms for virtualization (in comparison with development for software virtualization). This gives an absolute advantage in time when creating new platforms and reduces labor costs.
2. Simultaneous and independent launch of a pair of virtual platforms (while maintaining the possibility of using each of them separately), which, accordingly, increases the system performance.
3. The possibility of optimization.
4. Simplification of server infrastructure management.
Hardware virtualization. disadvantages
1. High requirements for hardware solutions (servers).
2. High costs for the implementation of technology.
There are several different types of server virtualization. The first type is consolidation (a logical unification of several virtual servers within one physical server), the second type is the union of several physical machines into one (logical) one, the purpose of which is to process one complex task.
On practice
combinations of two types at once are allowed. It is possible to implement any of these types only with the appropriate equipment (a processor that supports hardware virtualization technology).
At the moment, the most common are the options for building technology based on AMD and Intel processors. To find out which processor models support server virtualization, you need to go to the manufacturer’s website and see the characteristics of the device.
In general, hardware virtualization is a very efficient and uncomplicated technology for enhancing performance. To understand the scale of its capacity, it is enough to mention that the technology is used in industrial systems and medical devices, not to mention ordinary large companies with a huge fleet of technical devices that want to further consolidate their production resources.