In subsequent articles, I will be writing about one of the most popular cloud service providers developed by Microsoft—Microsoft Azure. There are several other options as earlier established but it happens that the knowledge of the services these cloud providers offer is transferrable.
So, I’m going to stick to one for now and from time to time see if I can juxtapose Microsoft Azure services and procedures with others like Amazon Web Services (AWS) and/or Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
Before then, let’s address a certain term I may have made mention of several times over—Virtual/Virtualised/Virtualisation.
VIRTUALISATION
Virtualisation is a technology that allows multiple virtual environments or instances to run on a single physical machine or infrastructure maximising resource utilization and increasing flexibility and efficiency.
It creates a layer of abstraction between the physical resources (like CPU, memory, storage, and network) and the virtual environments, enabling multiple virtual machines (VMs) or applications to share the same physical resources.
- Instance: refers to a single virtual machine (VM) or a single running copy of a software application or a service. It's a single, isolated, and self-contained environment that runs on a cloud provider's infrastructure. Examples include Amazon EC2 instances, Azure Virtual Machines, or Google Cloud Compute Engine instances.
- Virtual Environment: is a broader concept that encompasses multiple instances, resources, and configurations that work together to create a complete and isolated environment. It can include multiple instances, storage, networking, and other resources, all configured and managed as a single entity. Examples include Azure Virtual Desktop, Amazon Workspaces, or Google Cloud Virtual Private Servers (VPS).
In other words, one can have multiple instances (VMs) running within a single virtual environment (e.g., a virtual desktop infrastructure) while a virtual environment can comprise multiple instances, each with its own specific configuration and resources.
Virtualization can be applied to various areas, including:
- Server Virtualization: Multiple virtual servers run on a single physical server.
- Desktop Virtualization: Virtual desktops are hosted on a central server or cloud, and users access them remotely.
- Application Virtualization: Applications are packaged and run in a virtual environment, isolated from the underlying OS and infrastructure.
- Network Virtualization: Virtual networks are created on top of physical networks, enabling multiple virtual networks to coexist.
- Storage Virtualization: Multiple virtual storage devices are created from a single physical storage device.
Virtualization offers many benefits, such as:
- Increased resource utilization and efficiency.
- Improved flexibility and scalability.
- Enhanced security and isolation.
- Simplified management and maintenance.
- Better disaster recovery and business continuity.
If you ask me, Virtualisation is one of the most important building blocks that make cloud computing a reality, a successful reality.
Till next time~
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