Virtualization creates a simulated (or virtual) environment rather than a physical computing environment. Virtualization often includes computer-generated versions of hardware, operating systems, storage devices, and more. In this way, organizations can partition a single physical computer or server into many virtual machines. Although each virtual machine shares the resources of a single host machine, it can interact independently and run different operating systems or applications.
By creating multiple resources from a single computer or server, virtualization not only improves scalability and workloads, but also allows to use fewer servers in total, consume less energy, and reduce infrastructure costs and maintenance. There are four main categories of virtualization. The first is desktop virtualization, which allows a single central server to deliver and manage individualized desktops. The second is network virtualization, which is designed to divide the network bandwidth into independent channels and assign these channels to specific servers or devices. The third category is software virtualization, which separates applications from hardware and operating system. The fourth is storage virtualization, which combines various network storage resources into a single storage device for multiple users to access.