Virtualization and Cloud Computing - Report Example

Name Instructor Course Date of Submission Abstract Virtualization and cloud computing are two different terms with different meaning. However, many individuals misconceive the two terms and use them interchangeably. Virtualization in computing means the creation of the virtual version of a resource or device that includes the server, network components, computing environments, storage device or even the operating system, while cloud computing is a type of computing that is internet based where different services like the servers, applications, storage are delivered and shared among different users simultaneously. Virtualization concept is very important to cloud computing since it reduces the complexity of delivering services by offering a platform for optimizing composite IT resources in a scalable way. The purpose of this paper is to discuss into details the two concepts, explaining their importance in today’s IT environment, their implementations as well as other topics relevant to these concepts. Virtualization and Cloud Computing Introduction A number of people misconceive virtualization and cloud computing, and think that the two terms means the same thing. It is difficult to understand where this misconception arises from, despite the fact that there is a lot of information about the two concepts. Virtualization in computing means the creation of the virtual version of a resource or device that includes the server, network components, computing environments, storage device or even the operating system (OS), as opposed to the creation of physical or actual versions of the same resources. On the other hand, cloud computing is a type of computing that is internet based where different services like the servers, applications, storage are delivered and shared among different users simultaneously[Cer10]. People confuse the two terms possibly because it may seem that the two concepts are one in the same, since the data or applications being accessed in the two are pulled from a virtual machine which is not connected to a physical host. Cloud computing is created on top of a virtualized infrastructure that comprises of network, storage, and compute components. The concept of cloud is very possible without virtualization, but it will be inflexible and inefficient. There are several service models that represent cloud computing such as platform-as-a-service (PaaS), infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), and software-as-a-servive (SaaS), and there are a number of characteristics that define the cloud such as on-demand service delivery, automation, scalability, and agility[Cer10]. The purpose of this paper is to discuss into details the two concepts, explaining their importance in today’s IT environment, their implementations as well as other topics relevant to these concepts. Using Virtualization with Cloud Computing Virtualization concept is very important to cloud computing since it reduces the complexity of delivering services by offering a platform for optimizing composite IT resources in a scalable way. This makes cloud computing to be very cost effective. Virtualization may be employed very widely to almost everything imaginable including applications, operating systems, hardware, software, networks, and memory[Int13]. There are three characteristics of virtualization that makes it perfect for cloud computing namely partitioning, isolation, and encapsulation. Partitioning is very useful in virtualization because it supports many operating systems and applications in a single physical system. Isolation helps in protecting all the isolated virtual machines from viruses and crashes in other machines. It is important to note that virtualization is very critical for cloud because it decouples the hardware form the software. In virtualization, encapsulation is used to protect every application such that they do not interfere with each other. Encapsulation helps to represent a virtual machine (VM) as a single file; this makes the VM easier to identify and present to each application. Mobility found in virtualization and encapsulation offered in the technology increases user’s capability of moving virtual machines as required[Hur09]. Many companies use hypervisors to manage different aspects of virtualization in cloud computing. A hypervisor, also known as a virtual machine manager (VMM), acts like a mediator between the virtual machine and the physical hardware. It can be described as the software layer that runs and creates the virtual machines, as well as moderating the access to the host physical hardware. Hypervisors are of two type namely hosted and native/bare metal. Native hypervisors run directly on the host’s hardware and allow multiple operating systems to run on the same physical hardware. On the other hand, a hosted hypervisor runs on top of the host’s OS, and extra OS environments are run within the host’s operating system[Per09]. Since in cloud computing one requires to support several operating environments, hypervisors are then the perfect delivery mechanisms because they allow someone to show one application on many different systems. For the reason that a hypervisor may load numerous operating systems, it is a very useful way of having things virtualized efficiently and quickly[Hur09]. Therefore, virtualization plays and will continue to play a key role in cloud computing. Virtualization is the technology that has enabled service providers to offer low-cost hosting environments to business enterprises of different sizes in these days. Virtualization enables someone to consolidate all the servers and perform more with less hardware, and it also lets someone to support more users per a set of hardware, and deliver applications faster to the users. Importance of Virtualization and Cloud Computing in Today’s IT Environment The growth of mobile access devices, distributed or federated applications, cloud computing models, virtualized desktop infrastructures, and server virtualization are all initiating changes in networking traffic patterns[Int13]. Service-oriented applications and cloud computing are introducing more rigid security and service-level demands. Since hypervisors were introduced ten years ago, the increase in virtual machine mobility and the significant increase in virtual machine density have led to greater performance demands on the network subsystems at the server-network edge. Business enterprises are going beyond virtual machines and server virtualization to embrace cloud computing environment. Virtualized IT infrastructure is not only popular for cost saving, but it facilitates a quick change to the business model, business processes and business operating structure. By decoupling the logical resources of the business from the physical assets, virtualization computing will empower exceptionally swift responses to the changing business strategies and conditions. Virtualization is the most single effective and efficient way to reduce the IT expenses while still booting the efficiency and the agility of the organization[Wit13]. It consolidate the hardware, simplify and speed up the IT management, IT maintenance and it make it easier to deploy new applications[Sab12]. Cloud computing provides high performance and support as the business application and software are updated automatically. It also enables the employees feel as if they are working in a single room since all the business apps are shared among them. It provides storage solutions and ensures that there is no loss of data regardless of what happens to the IT infrastructure the data is safe and can be accessed anywhere at any time so long as you have internet connections. It reduces the IT costs by almost 50 percent or more since there is no maintaining of the in-house-servers that are expensive and comes together with high up-front costs, the workforce becomes more mobile, collaborative and more productive when using the cloud[Cer10]. Implementation of Virtualization and Cloud Computing Currently, the cloud has demonstrated to be a good delivery model, with an increasing number of organizations realizing impressive efficiency and agility benefits. That is, there are well-defined benefits of implementing virtualization and cloud management software, from increased agility and reduced total cost of ownership to facilitating more rapid innovation. Most of the clouds are created or built on virtualized infrastructure technology. Virtualization is the basis for a scalable, agile cloud, and the first actual step, for creating cloud infrastructure. It isolates and abstracts the underlying hardware as virtual machines in their own runtime environment and with numerous virtual machines for networking, storage, and computing resources in a lone hosting environment. The virtualized resources are significant for managing data, moving it in and out of the cloud, and running applications with high availability and high utilization. Virtualization is managed by a host server running a hypervisor. A hypervisor can be a hardware, firmware or software that builds and runs virtual machines[Wit13]. Virtualization provides a number of critical capabilities for the cloud computing including load balancing, virtual machine isolation, and resource sharing. These capabilities enable increased uptime, workload isolation, rapid provisioning, high utilization of pooled resources, and scalability in a cloud environment. The fast-changing and complex nature of solutions for software, platform, and infrastructure cloud computing can be very intensive. Cloud computing environments may involve application programming interfaces, new software development languages, and techniques; an array of paradigm shifts in system maintenance, operations, security, and system administration; and new approaches to storage. In a similar manner, consolidation and virtualization initiatives need expertness over the whole IT stack to prevent drawbacks and stay on track. Implementation of virtualization and cloud computing involves services such as cloud software development; IaaS, SaaS, and PaaS application development; redesigning and evaluating applications for the cloud; cloud migration and transition; virtualization of physical infrastructure; storage interface consolidation, among others[Wit13]. For virtualization to be implemented, you need to make sure that your hardware has the capacity to support it. This includes the processor and the system mother board that will allow a platform to run the multiple apps and operating system in the independent partitions and thus allowing a single computer system to function like multiple virtual systems. Ensure that you have enough memory and the hard disk space to support the intended number of virtual machines on the host hardware as well as for each virtual machine and the host. Secondly, adjust the BIOS setting to enable the virtualization and at this point you can now install the host virtualization operating system. Then add and configure the virtual machines. Business process changes are prevalent in a cloud implementation. For a cloud project to be successful, one have to cooperate with process owners to document correctly the tasks and processes affected and specify how to reduce the number of human control points required. Additionally, there is need for management cooperation to implement any changes to existing processes that may benefit from the automation, and one will be developing new processes. It is also necessary to implement other processes to better manage one’s cloud, such as cost information and system-related business intelligence. The cloud cannot succeed without the right technology. Your technology priorities should be set according to milestones described in the cloud strategy and the implementation phases. For instance, short-term priorities should generally include implementing pervasive virtualization to incorporate physical resources, network, storage, and compute, and then providing IaaS by implementing self-service, on-demand, end-to-end capabilities; security; orchestration; and automation[Int13]. Long term priorities may include plan to incorporate public services into a hybrid model. Reference architectures and building blocks or out-of-the box workflow templates may substantially simply implementation as well as minimize project time. For the cloud computing to be implemented, the company needs to have unlimited access to the internet for quick and smooth running of the apps via the cloud. With the right bandwidth, the company’s services and operations become slow which frustrate the users. The company must consider the data security and recovery, business continuity, reliability, availability, and the back-up systems. It must also consider the appliances that are needed to be supported by the cloud such as the load balancers, firewalls, servers, network among others[Cer10]. Challenges of Implementing Cloud Computing The concept of cloud has become so popular that chief information officers are rushing to implement virtualization. This has contributed to numerous complexities than solutions. The challenges of implementing cloud mostly results from the haste implementation without proper analysis of one’s requirements and situations beforehand. One of the common challenges that chief information officers face is the objections. Chief information officers find it difficult to convince the management concerning the usefulness of transiting from an on-premise set-up to cloud. To make a good proposal, one needs to analyze the cloud requirements with precision. One should focus on issues such as damage recovery, data security, expandability, scalability, elasticity, and cost cutting[Hur09]. Another issue that is a challenge to cloud implementation is selecting a cloud set-up. There are three different types of cloud currently available, namely hybrid, public, and private[Hur09]. Cloud implementation can be very successful if one choses the most suitable cloud set-up. Large companies are safer with their immense data in private cloud environment whereas small business can economically benefit by hosting their services in a public cloud. A number of companies also prefer the hybrid cloud as a balanced strategy. Chief information officers find it difficult to make their decisions due to the availability of cloud services in forms of IaaS, SaaS, and PaaS. When implementing cloud one needs to adhere to both internal and governmental regulations. The current governmental policies may prove insufficient and flawed because cloud governance is coming into being while internal policies may be too inflexible and stringent. Therefore, one may require professional and external help in properly implementing the cloud set-up. It is recommendable to choose a cloud computing consulting service which knows the terms and conditions concerning data security and cloud implementation across borders. Another clinging issues with cloud computing is the reliance on the service provider. For fast and uninterrupted services one is supposed to select a vendor with proper technical and infrastructural expertise. There is need to select a vendor who can meet the security standards set by both the internal policies and government agencies. Currently, established and new vendors are competing to offer cloud services. The user is therefore challenged on how to choose the right offering. A number of the services are actually designed to promote development on the service provider’s proprietary platform, restraining switching abilities and distributing the services through applications created for the external cloud alone. This is good to the development community because it allows quick access to development platforms and infrastructure on which to build a cloud application. However, this can be dangerous for IT when dealing with IP and SOX risks as well as when the application is taken back to the enterprise for production-level support[Per09]. Therefore, users are supposed to choose a cloud strategy that allows the quickest development time for new applications, with the widest support for different development environment and OSs, and the capability of supporting production-level applications on-and-off premise as required. Another challenge is mobility and location selection for running applications, externally in a public cloud or internally in a private cloud. Another popular strategy in the market is the “superstore phenomenon.” A number of organizations such as Google, Microsoft, and Amazon are all battling out over whose superstore datacenter is good for developers to create and store their cloud applications. Although these organizations are stable, users should be in a position to move their applications at their own will from one cloud to another, whether externally or internally to avoid unintended inconvenience[Per09]. Typically, one of the key concern with cloud computing is manageability and security. It is even a more critical issue when someone involves several vendors. Since one will be running the company’s data and assets from a third party interface, privacy and data security is one of the most important things. Therefore, when engaging a cloud service provider, it is good to know about their cloud based security policies upfront. It is advisable to make sure that a cloud service provider has effective data backup plans to recover data if a catastrophe strikes[Sab12]. Nonetheless, cloud service providers normally apply strict data security policies to avoid hacking and invest hugely on advanced hardware and software. In additional, a number of issues concerning data security may be mitigated by using a hybrid cloud environment. Data portability is also an issue to consider when implementing the cloud. Even when one is in the cloud, one still like to have command over his/her data and therefore, making sure their data portability is very important. Frequently, clients complain that they are not allowed to switch freely as they are usually locked in with service providers. Issues concerning data portability may totally threaten one’s smooth transition to cloud. Finally, one more issue is making transition from on-premise set-up to a virtual one. Other issues include network configuration, data migration and moving virtual machines. Planning in advance can assist in avoiding most of these issues with cloud configuration[Per09]. Conclusion Virtualization and cloud computing are two different terms with different meaning. However, many individuals misconceive the two terms and use them interchangeably. Virtualization in computing means the creation of the virtual version of a resource or device that includes the server, network components, computing environments, storage device or even the operating system, while cloud computing is a type of computing that is internet based where different services like the servers, applications, storage are delivered and shared among different users simultaneously. Virtualization concept is very important to cloud computing since it reduces the complexity of delivering services by offering a platform for optimizing composite IT resources in a scalable way. Virtualized IT infrastructure is not only popular for cost saving, but it facilitates a quick change to the business model, business processes and business operating structure. By decoupling the logical resources of the business from the physical assets, virtualization computing will empower exceptionally swift responses to the changing business strategies and conditions. Virtualization is the most single effective and efficient way to reduce the IT expenses while still booting the efficiency and the agility of the organization[Wit13]. It consolidate the hardware, simplify and speed up the IT management, IT maintenance and it make it easier to deploy new applications[Sab12]. Cloud computing provides high performance and support as the business application and software are updated automatically. It also enables the employees feel as if they are working in a single room since all the business apps are shared among them. It provides storage solutions and ensures that there is no loss of data regardless of what happens to the IT infrastructure the data is safe and can be accessed anywhere at any time so long as you have internet connections. It reduces the IT costs by almost 50 percent or more since there is no maintaining of the in-house-servers that are expensive and comes together with high up-front costs, the workforce becomes more mobile, collaborative and more productive when using the cloud[Cer10]. The challenges of implementing cloud mostly results from the haste implementation without proper analysis of one’s requirements and situations beforehand. Challenges of implementing cloud computing include objections, selecting cloud set-up, receiving guidance, dealing with the vendor, data security, and data portability. Other issues include network configuration, data migration and moving virtual machines. Planning in advance can assist in avoiding most of these issues with cloud configuration. Works Cited Cer10: , (Cervone 162), Cer10: , (Cervone 167), Int13: , (Intel Corporation), Hur09: , (Hurwitz, Bloor and Kaufman 14), Per09: , (Perilli), Hur09: , (Hurwitz, Bloor and Kaufman 23), Wit13: , (Withers), Sab12: , (Sabahi 40), Cer10: , (Cervone 163), Cer10: , (Cervone 165), Hur09: , (Hurwitz, Bloor and Kaufman 30), Sab12: , (Sabahi 42), Read More