Today most of the businesses operate online or a part of their operations online. Also, over the time new technologies are evolving and offering great perks for the businesses to improve and excel. One such technology is ‘Cloud Computing.’ Cloud Computing is a term used for using a network or remote servers hosted on the Internet to store, manage and process the data, rather than a dedicated or shared server. However, some people often misinterpret cloud computing with virtualization. Cloud is virtual which is true, but it is not as same as virtualization.
In this article, we aim to help people understand the difference between Virtualization and Cloud Computing. Let us learn about Virtualization first.
Virtualization
Virtualization is the creation of the multiple forms virtually rather than physically. The form can either be server, operating system, network or storage. Virtualization aims to simplify and easily manage the workload such as to make computing scalable. There are seven different types of virtualization viz OS virtualization, Application virtualization, Server virtualization, Administrative virtualization, Network virtualization, Hardware virtualization, and Storage virtualization.
Let’s dig more into server virtualization, here the physical server is partitioned into multiple virtual servers using virtualization software such as Hypervisor. The partitioned server works in an isolated environment such that they do not hinder on computing of another server. The virtual machine though created is known as Virtual Machine(VM) or a Virtual Private Server (VPS).
Cloud Computing
Cloud Computing is essentially a service that helps in delivering computing services. It includes services like software, networking, servers, database, storage, etc. with the cloud. This include services like software, networking, servers, storage, and database, etc. Simply put virtualization can survive without cloud but the cloud cannot survive without virtualization. Computing resources over the cloud can be requested over the internet on demand and the companies providing cloud technology is known as Cloud Providers.
There are usually three types of cloud: Public Cloud, Private Cloud, and Hybrid Cloud. In the public cloud, the server is shared among all the users and cloud is managed by the cloud service provider. Private Cloud is managed by the single organization as it is own by the organization itself, there is no sharing of resources in Private Cloud. Whereas in the Hybrid cloud that is a mix of both public cloud and private cloud and offers the best features of both the public and private cloud. Apart from the cloud model, the cloud is also classified by services provided over the cloud- Infrastructure as a service(IaaS), Platform as a service(PaaS) and Software as a service (SaaS). Each of the services is built on the top of one other delivering the expected services and business goals.
Difference between Virtualization Vs. Cloud Computing
Now since you know what virtualization and cloud computing mean, let us learn the major differences between the both. Ideally Virtualization has more advantages for cloud computing. However, selection between virtualization and cloud computing depends on the type of the business you have and the requirements you have. Let’s take an example of a public cloud where all the resources are shared among all the users and if one user consumes the more resources than other users have nothing to use. However the private cloud has solved this issue where all resources belong to a single user, and there is no security breach as a server is utilizing the benefit of virtualization and offers more flexibility and control. Whereas in virtualization, users are sharing the same space, and with another user, they are not sharing the resources. It gives an advantage that makes your server as a multiple server and applications on the same hardware. Virtualization is more cost friendly as compared to the cloud computing.
Virtualization and Cloud Computing has the applicability by the type of business, business needs and the advantages they offer. They both have the similar working. However, people often misinterpret among the both. Hope this article serves the purpose of explaining the difference between both of them.
