Types of virtualization

You probably know a little about virtualization if you have ever divided your hard drive into different partitions. A partition is the logical division of a hard disk drive to create, in effect, two separate hard drives.

There are six areas of IT where virtualization is making headway:

Network virtualization is a method of combining the available resources in a network by splitting up the available bandwidth into channels, each of which is independent from the others and can be assigned -- or reassigned -- to a particular server or device in real time. The idea is that virtualization disguises the true complexity of the network by separating it into manageable parts, much like your partitioned hard drive makes it easier to manage your files.
Storage virtualization is the pooling of physical storage from multiple network storage devices into what appears to be a single storage device that is managed from a central console. Storage virtualization is commonly used in storage area networks.
Server virtualization is the masking of server resources -- including the number and identity of individual physical servers, processors and operating systems -- from server users. The intention is to spare the user from having to understand and manage complicated details of server resources while increasing resource sharing and utilization and maintaining the capacity to expand later.
The layer of software that enables this abstraction is often referred to as the hypervisor. The most common hypervisor -- Type 1 -- is designed to sit directly on bare metal and provide the ability to virtualize the hardware platform for use by the virtual machines. KVM virtualization is a Linux kernel-based virtualization hypervisor that provides Type 1 virtualization benefits similar to other hypervisors. KVM is licensed under open source. A Type 2 hypervisor requires a host operating system and is more often used for testing and labs.

Data virtualization is abstracting the traditional technical details of data and data management, such as location, performance or format, in favor of broader access and more resiliency tied to business needs.
Desktop virtualization is virtualizing a workstation load rather than a server. This allows the user to access the desktop remotely, typically using a thin client at the desk. Since the workstation is essentially running in a data center server, access to it can be both more secure and portable. The operating system license does still need to be accounted for as well as the infrastructure.
Application virtualization is abstracting the application layer away from the operating system. This way, the application can run in an encapsulated form without being depended upon on by the operating system underneath. This can allow a Windows application to run on Linux and vice versa, in addition to adding a level of isolation.

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