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| server virtualization | |
|---|---|
| Name | server virtualization |
| Invented | 1960s |
| Inventors | IBM, Frederick P. Brooks Jr., Gene Amdahl |
| Developer | VMware, Inc., Microsoft, Red Hat, Citrix Systems, Oracle Corporation |
server virtualization
Server virtualization is a technology that creates multiple simulated computing environments from a single physical hardware system. It enables consolidation of workloads, isolation of operating systems, and flexible resource allocation across data centers operated by organizations such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, and IBM Cloud. Major vendors including VMware, Inc., Red Hat, Canonical (company), and Oracle Corporation provide hypervisors, tools, and management suites used by enterprises like Walmart, JPMorgan Chase, General Electric, and Toyota Motor Corporation.
Server virtualization separates operating systems and applications from physical hardware using a software layer called a hypervisor; prominent hypervisor technologies include products from VMware, Inc., Microsoft, Citrix Systems, and Oracle Corporation. It is deployed in on-premises data centers operated by Equinix, Digital Realty, and cloud regions run by Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform as well as hybrid scenarios involving providers such as Red Hat and VMware Tanzu. Enterprises integrate virtualization with orchestration and automation platforms like Kubernetes, OpenShift, Ansible (software), Terraform (software), and Jenkins (software) to manage lifecycles across hardware from Dell Technologies, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Lenovo, and Cisco Systems.
The concept traces to mainframe partitioning pioneered by IBM in the 1960s, particularly with the CP-40 and CP-67 research and production systems and the subsequent System/360 lineage; influential figures include Frederick P. Brooks Jr. and Gene Amdahl. Commercialization accelerated with virtualization research at institutions such as Stanford University, and later with products from companies including VMware, Inc. and XenSource. Legal and market milestones involved players like Microsoft during antitrust-era technology shifts, while acquisitions and consolidations included Citrix Systems acquiring XenSource and Oracle Corporation acquiring assets that influenced enterprise adoption among corporations such as Bank of America and HSBC.
Core components include hypervisors (type 1 and type 2) developed by vendors like VMware, Inc. and Microsoft Corporation, virtual machine monitors influenced by research at Stanford University and University of Cambridge, and virtual networking technologies from Cisco Systems and Juniper Networks. Storage integration leverages arrays from NetApp, EMC Corporation (EMC), and Hitachi Data Systems, while fabrics use standards driven by The Open Group and consortiums like DMTF. Management tools interoperate with identity systems such as Active Directory and LDAP implementations from Red Hat and Samba (software), and monitoring uses platforms like Nagios, Prometheus, and Zabbix.
Approaches encompass full virtualization as implemented by vendors like VMware, Inc.; paravirtualization exemplified by Xen (software) and contributions from Citrix Systems; and containerization led by Docker (company) and orchestration by Kubernetes, adopted by Google LLC and Red Hat. Other forms include OS-level virtualization used by OpenVZ and lightweight isolates used by CloudLinux, Inc.. Edge and microservices deployments bring in vendors such as Cloudflare and Fastly, while specialized appliances and virtualization for high-performance computing are used by organizations like Los Alamos National Laboratory and CERN.
Implementation involves provisioning with platforms like vSphere from VMware, Inc., Hyper-V from Microsoft, and KVM from Red Hat; orchestration employs OpenStack and automation via Ansible (software), Puppet (software), and Chef (software). Enterprises integrate virtualization into CI/CD pipelines using tools such as Jenkins (software), GitLab, and Travis CI and manage capacity with services from ServiceNow or observability with Splunk. Hardware lifecycle and procurement often include vendors like Dell Technologies, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Intel Corporation, and AMD for CPU and virtualization feature support.
Benefits driving adoption include consolidation endorsed by analysts at Gartner, cost control sought by firms like Accenture, and agility promoted by McKinsey & Company; virtualization also enables disaster recovery solutions using vendors such as Veeam and Zerto. Limitations include performance overhead investigated by researchers at MIT and UC Berkeley, licensing complexity involving Oracle Corporation and Microsoft, and challenges in managing sprawl highlighted by auditors from Deloitte. Interoperability issues arise between formats like VMDK and QCOW2 used by providers including VMware, Inc. and QEMU developers.
Security models rely on isolation mechanisms researched at Carnegie Mellon University and enforced by vendors such as VMware, Inc. and Microsoft. Compliance frameworks guiding deployments include standards from ISO, NIST, and regulations enforced by agencies like SEC and European Commission for data protection; auditors from PwC and KPMG assess controls. Threats include hypervisor escape, supply chain risks flagged by NIST advisories, and misconfiguration problems examined in reports from ENISA; mitigation tools come from Trend Micro, Symantec (company), and Palo Alto Networks.
Common use cases include consolidation in financial services at Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, test and development environments in technology firms like Facebook, Inc. and Netflix, virtual desktop infrastructure for corporations such as Lockheed Martin and Boeing, and cloud migration projects by Siemens. Industries from healthcare organizations like Mayo Clinic to retailers like Target Corporation use virtualization combined with cloud platforms such as Amazon Web Services and hybrid services from VMware Cloud to improve scalability and resilience.
Category:Virtualization