Xen can provide virtualisation compatible with many operating systems.

Xen project is one of the projects handled by Linux Foundation. Xen – Leading open source hypervisor included in the Linux kernel and available in all Linux distributions. Another disadvantage is VMWare has a hardware compatibility list which needs to be checked before adopting it. Technically very good known for its hypervisors, but costly. VMWare – Known as the first commercially successful virtualisation software to virtualise x86 architecture. But the need for extensive planning and skilled technical resource, slow performance because all virtual machines using the same resource to run, etc. Virtualization can bring in low / no-cost deployment, complete resource utilization, operational and power savings, etc. There are various layers of virtualization – server virtualization, desktop virtualization, file virtualization and network virtualization. The system on which a hypervisor runs one or more VMs is called a host machine and each of the virtual machines is called a guest machine. Virtual machines are created and run by a computer software, firmware or hardware called Hypervisor (Virtual Machine Monitor / VMM). Virtualised computers make use of two types of file structures – file defining hardware as well as file defining hard drive. Virtual machines reside on a physical computer as data files, which can be moved and copied to another computer, like any normal data file. When a different operating system is operating on top of another underlying primary operating system through virtualization, it is referred to as a virtual machine. Here, multiple operating systems will be run on a single hardware where hardware is emulated through software.

Most common virtualization is operating system level virtualization. To have a clear idea of virtualization as well as cloud computing, please do look at our article on both of them here :īasic technical details of virtualization To be more precise, we can tell that cloud computing cannot be achieved without virtualization. Cloud computing is the technology used to deliver these virtual computing devices via the internet. In computing, virtualization refers to creating a virtual version of computing devices like servers, hardware platforms, storage devices, computer network resources, etc.

Xen vs kvm vs virtualbox vs vmware