Table of Contents

1. Introduction.................................................................................................................2
2. How It Works...............................................................................................................3
3. Types of Hypervisor....................................................................................................4
4. Challenges responsible for Growth of Virtualization..................................................5
5. Classification of Virtualization....................................................................................6
6. Industry Players...........................................................................................................8
7. Managerial Implications..............................................................................................9
8. Virtualization Software Offerings.............................................................................12
9. References.................................................................................................................13

Table of Figures
Figure 1: Traditional System versus Virtualized system.......................................................3
Figure 2: A Virtual Machine..................................................................................................4
Figure 3: Virtual Infrastructure..............................................................................................4
Figure 4: Issues with IT environment....................................................................................6
Figure 5: Types of Virtualization...........................................................................................7
Figure 6: Desktop Virtualization...........................................................................................8
Figure 7: Gartner Magic Quadrant........................................................................................9
Figure 8: Condensed Image of Processor Manager.............................................................10
Figure 9: Virtualization Software License issue..................................................................12
Figure 10: Virtualization software offerings........................................................................13

1. Introduction
Virtualization is one of the sultriest themes for business administrators and also IT
supervisors with profits like expanded productivity, expanded resource optimization, all the
more computing power and so forth. It is an innovation arrangement that addresses various
business drivers, essentially cost savings, which influence pretty much all commercial
ventures. However, what precisely is the technology all about?
Virtualization is innovation for supporting execution of PC system code, from applications to
entire OS in a software present environment. As a result such a type of Virtual Machine (VM)
environment digests accessible framework assets (memory, storage, CPU core(s), I/O, and so
forth.) and presents them in a consistent manner, such that "guest" software can't recognize
VM-built execution from running with respect to bare physical hardware. It is a
structure/approach of asset allotment between various execution situations by utilizing
methods like time/resource sharing, simulation/emulation and so forth.
A virtual machine (VM) provides a software environment that allows software to run on bare
metal. Such an environment is known as a hypervisor. It is isolated and very efficient replica
of real OS. The hypervisor has functionality that looks like hardware to the guest operating
system. It allows multiple operating system instances to run concurrently on a single
computer; it is a means of separating hardware from a single operating system. CPU,
processors, storage and memory are shared and it also has provision for desktop migration.

Figure1:TraditionalSystemversusVirtualizedsystem

Figure2:AVirtualMachine

2. How It Works
Virtualization platform transform or virtualize the hardware resources of an x86-based
computerincluding the CPUs, network controllers, PCI slots, hard disks to create a fully
functional virtual machine as shown in figure 1 that can run its own operating system and
applications just like a real computer. Each virtual machine (Figure 2) contains a complete
system, eliminating potential conflicts. A layer of software directly is placed between the
computer hardware and OS of the host. Various resources of the server are dynamically
allocated. Thus multiple OS can successfully run on a physical hardware. The hypervisor has
provision for making sure that the compatibility between the device drivers with the software
is maintained. Thus fully functional multiple OS sharing underlying single physical resource
is possible using virtualization.
Virtualization also helps the IT company share physical resources across entire infrastructure.
This property ascertains maximum efficiency. There is also a provision for application
sharing thus reducing the licensing cost hence facilitating greater flexibility in the
organization and results in lower capital and operational costs.

Figure3:VirtualInfrastructure

A virtual infrastructure as shown in Figure 3 consists of the following components:

i. Bare-metal hypervisors to enable full virtualization of each x86 computer.
ii. Virtual infrastructure services such as resource management and consolidated backup to
optimize available resources among virtual machines

3. Types of Hypervisor
Type 1
Bare-Metal

Type 2
Hosted

Type 2 hypervisors don't perform as well as the type 1 hypervisors and that's because that
operating system layer is in between the virtualization layer and the physical hardware so
there's greater overhead in using type-2 hypervisors which really means you cant get as
many virtual machines on the same piece of hardware and another way of saying that is that
the consolidation ratio with type 2 hypervisors is much lower than the consolidation ratio
with type 1 hypervisors so in other words you can't get as many virtual machines on the same
piece of hardware if you use a type 2 hypervisor as you can with type 1 hypervisor.
So Type 1s are to be used in the data center. That's where you have a dedicated physical
server. You load these virtualization products or these hypervisors on that server and then you
consolidate as many physical servers as virtual machines onto those virtual hosts using the
type 1 hypervisor that's because you're going to get the best performance with those type 1
hypervisors.
On the other hand, Type 2 hypervisors are still very useful because if you just want to run
a couple of virtual machines lets say on your laptop or your desktop PC the type 2
hypervisor is the way to go. You could run in exchange for a machine or a web server or a
Linux experts machine inside Windows using these type 2 hypervisors so there's tremendous
benefits in the type 2 hypervisor. But it's meant for a desktop or a laptop system that already
has an operating system, you already have applications may be your email your web
browsing, your Microsoft Office applications. They can all be loaded along with the type 2
hypervisor that's going to give you access to run more virtual machines.

4. Challenges responsible for Growth of Virtualization

On average, applications use a modest percentage of computing resources available to it
on the host machine. The table below gives resource consumption for a set of common
applications

Table1:ResourceUtilizationwithsomecommonsetofApplications

Thus there are a variety of challenges in the IT environment today that give rise to the
virtualization technology.

Figure4:IssueswithITenvironment

A. Low Infrastructure Utilization

Typical x86 server deployments achieve an average utilization of only 10% to 15% of total
capacity. Organizations do this to avoid any risk arising out of simultaneous running of
contradicting apps on single system. However, this leads to wastage of lots of computing
power and thus leads to requirement of more servers.

B. Increasing Physical Infrastructure Costs

The operational expenditure to support growing physical infrastructure have steadily

increased. This has given impetus to the concept of BYOD i.e. Bring your own device. To
enable business continuity on all such devices is only adding up to the already increasing
costs.

C. Increasing IT management Costs

More infrastructure means more support staff to carry on manual tasks associated with server
maintenance. Hiring costs and salaries also add up to the bill.
D. Insufficient Failover and Disaster Protection
Business critical applications cant afford to be down. Each downtime costs company
thousands of dollars in revenue and probable loss of clients. These downtimes are increasing
with the rise in security attacks and terrorism.

E. High Maintenance End-User Desktops

Overseeing and securing enterprise desktops present various difficulties. Controlling a
distributed desktop environment and authorizing administration, access and security
approaches without impeding clients' capacity to work viably is mind boggling and lavish.
5. Classification of Virtualization
Virtualization

Server Virtualization

Desktop Virtualization

Resource Virtualization Application Virtualization

Figure5:TypesofVirtualization

A. Server Virtualization
It is the most common type of virtualization. In this type, we create virtual servers over a
single physical host server using hypervisor software to optimize computing power of the
physical server and reduce wastage.
B. Desktop Virtualization
The remote manipulation of a computer desktop is called desktop virtualization. For example,
here you can see three racks of servers. On top of these servers, you load VMware vSphere as

a hypervisor. Then on one of the server, you load VMware View Manager. This acts as a
connection broker where all kind of devices connect. End users connect to their virtual
machines using the view manager.

Figure6:DesktopVirtualization

Drivers for desktop virtualization

Source: Entperprise and SMB Hardware Survey, North America and Europe, Forrester Research

C. Resource Virtualization
The virtualization of system resources is known as resource virtualization.

Storage Virtualization: pooling of multiple physical storage resources into a

single storage resource that is centrally managed. Storage virtualization is
commonly used in file systems, storage area networks (SANs), switches and virtual
tape systems. Users can implement storage virtualization with software, hybrid
hardware or software appliances.

Network Virtualization: process of combining hardware and software network

resources and network functionality into a single, software-based administrative
entity, a virtual network.

D. Application Virtualization
The hosting of individual application on alien hardware/software is called application
virtualization. For example, a program like Microsoft Word executes on a server located in
the data center, but the graphical output is displayed on a remote client device. The end-user
is able to interact with it via keyboard and mouse. Types include:

Portable application

Cross-platform virtualization

Emulation or Simulation

6. Industry Players
Gartner magic quadrant is a tool for understanding the relative position of various market
players in an industry. Companies are measured on two broad capabilities i.e ability to
execute and completeness of vision and accordingly they are classified under four categories
namely:

Figure7:GartnerMagicQuadrant

From the magic quadrant it is quite clear that

Challengers: These players have ability to execute but lack on completeness of vision
parameter. Oracle with its application driven virtualization falls into challengers
category. Oracle products have high degree of reliability, high availability/disaster
recovery feature and support to openstack.

Leaders: They have perfect strategy and roadmap of their product offering, they also
have clear formulation high growth technologies such as cloud
(private/hybrid/public). VMware and Microsoft are clear market leaders, scoring very
highly on parameters such as viability, pricing, customer experience and operation.
VMware in 2013 introduced vSphere 5.5, virtual SAN, storage VMotion, Server
Caching etc. with increased focus on end user computing. Microsoft with its enhance
version of Hyper-V has grown by manifolds in virtualization space. Microsoft has a
very advantageous position as it can be released as a package with Windows server
2012.

Visionaries: These players typically have differentiated approach or technological

prowess but lack in execution front. In virtualization industry, none of the company
falls into this category.

Niche Players: These players have focused on very specific product niches and have
not capitalized on their entire market yet. Parallels, Citrix, Red Hat and Huawei fall
under this category. Red Hat is used in Linux cluster and open stack implementations,
Parallels is used in high-density deployments, Citrix with Xen server and Huawei are
used in desktop virtualization.

7. Managerial Implications
This research was done in the college laboratory consisting of 20 computers. The
computers were having only one OS installed in them earlier. Using virtualization techniques,
3-4 OS were installed on each of them. A study was made on the condensed picture of
processor performance of each computer and then the average picture was made from the
data available which is shown in the Figure 3 below.
Before VMware

Figure8:CondensedImageofProcessorManager

After VMware

As it is visible here, that the performance of processor manager increases and thus the
machines become more efficient. This clearly proves that virtualization results in better
performance and efficiency.
Likewise, heres a data which shows the cost impact of virtualization on one of VMwares
clients.

Thus, broadly we have following benefits of virtualization:

a. Cost Efficiency: Lower hardware spending due to accelerated server consolidation
and increased server utilization rates.
b. Scalability/Agility: Lesser dependence on hardware and quick response to changing
customer demand enables enterprise to be more agile and scale up the business.
c. Business Continuity: Easier software migration leading to better disaster recovery
mechanisms, thus keeping business online 24X7
d. High Availability: Like above point, better disaster recovery mechanisms provide
lesser downtime and hence high availability to serve customers
e. Security: Centralized and consolidated control gives access to version
updates/patches from the centralized system only, thus keeping all systems up to date
and less prone to security threats.
However, there are a number of risks that companies have to mitigate while they
try to achieve above benefits by using virtualization. For example, as per a report Key
Trends in Software Pricing & Licensing Survey 2013-14, 85% of organizations were
found to be out of compliance with their software license agreements due to use of the

software in virtualized environments. Below infographic gives a concise picture of the

problem.

There is also an increasing risk of security that is associated with virtualization much like

Figure9:VirtualizationSoftwareLicenseissue

cloud computing. There is a loss of network visibility inside the virtualization systems.
Classical network tools can't regulate the traffic between guests. This makes it difficult for
network security teams to comprehensively monitor for malicious or inappropriate traffic
flows. To improve security in virtualized environments, following recommendations should
be implemented by organizations:
Up-to-date hypervisors to mitigate security threats. Even bare metal hypervisors
require physical security.

Maintain security for each component, from hypervisor and host OS to guest OS,
storage and applications.

Restrict and protect administrator access to the virtualization solution

Carefully plan security for a virtualization solution before installing, configuring

and deploying it

8. Virtualization Software Offerings

Figure10:Virtualizationsoftwareofferings

9. References
i.

VMware. Capacity Planner.

http://www.vmware.com/products/capacity-planner/
ii.
http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/partners/academic/vmware-academic-isca126soundararajan-wp.pdf
iii.
2013-14 Key Trends in Software Pricing & Licensing Survey:
http://resources.flexerasoftware.com/
iv. http://fcw.com/microsites/2011/data-center-optimization/agencies-address-securityconcerns.aspx
v. F. Hao, T.V. Lakshman "Enhancing Dynamic Cloud-based Services Using Network
Virtualization
vi.
Dr. Rao Mikkilineni & Vijay Sarathy, Cloud Computing and Lessons from the Past,
Kawa Objects, Inc.
vii.
Virtualization: From the Desktop to the Enterprise, Chris Wolf, Erick M. Halter.
viii.
http://www.virtualizationadmin.com
ix.
http://www.virtualization.org
x.
Norbert Skubch, Roland Klausnitzer (2012). Trends in Virtualization and their
Implications