Virtualization vs Cloud

Welcome back again!!

On this week’s post will be talking about virtualization and cloud computing, two interesting concepts that may be useful when designing your data center because of the savings you might have.

In a previous post (“Data center architectures”) we already talked a little bit about virtualization and the cloud, but now we are going to explain them in detail empathizing on their differences and the advantages they put in data centers.

Before discussing their difference, it’s important to know what is each concept.

What’s VIRTUALIZATION?

In the previous post we described virtualization as the mechanism that allows servers to run multiple applications on the same device. Let’s focus on this idea!

Virtualization is the mean to create dedicated resources, making possible to run multiple operating systems and applications on the same device at the same time. This process will create virtual machines. So, by just using one PC you can have multiple virtual machines running multiple softwares on each one of them.

Thanks to virtualization, devices, applications and users can interact with virtual resources like if they were a unique resource.

In a company, usually, most of the IT investment goes to servers in data centers, but using virtualization the cost is considerably reduced. Besides, virtualization increases efficiency, utilization and flexibility of the existing computer hardware.

BENEFITS OF VIRTUALIZATION

• Security: if a hacker compromises one service, it won’t have access to other services nor the whole system.
• Flexibility: according the service we want to create, we’ll create a virtual machine with specific CPUs, memory, disc space…
• Portability: all the configuration of the virtual machine resides in a few files that can be easily managed.

WHY TO USE IT IN DATA CENTERS?
In the past every service had his own server, so if a big company wanted to use mail, they had to buy a server with capacity to handle all the mails of all people in the company. Then, if they wanted to add a new service, they had to buy a new server.

So by buying a new server by service you can imagine how high should be the investment they had in data centers.

What’s CLOUD COMPUTING?

Cloud Computing is a technology that is looking to have all data on the Internet so everyone can access the information without having the need of a big infrastructure.

BENEFITS OF THE CLOUD COMPUTING

• Low cost: the company only has to pay a monthly fee.
• Security: the company can access data no matter what happens to any device of the company.
• Flexibility: cloud computing helps company to grow depending on the needs of the company.

As we’ve seen virtualization and cloud computing have a close relationship. Virtualization is the software that manipulates hardware and cloud computing refers to a services that results from that manipulation.There are different cloud services, here we have and example:

One of the services (IaaS or Internet as a Service) uses virtualization to provide an infrastructure as a service. The company or the client buys resources an external provider to host their data.

Although the other services are not related with virtualization, it’s worth knowing what they are. PaaS or Plataform as a Service looks to build and develop apps and services Web that will be completely available through the Internet. SaaS or Software as a Service is the software distribution where the company offers the management of operation that the client will use as long as the service is hired.

Which one to use?

According to the needs and the investment of the enterprise you can find interest using one or another. Summing up the post we can collect their differences on this picture:

Hope you like this post and if you have any question do not hesitate to ask in the comments below. See you next week!!