”Virtualization is the key to cloud computing”, justify this statement with proper arguments. How hypervisor are used in cloud computing service?

 Virtualization is one of the key components of the cloud computing paradigm, especially in infrastructure as a service model where the mentioned technology is essential to provide a large set of computing resources. Some experts even define cloud computing as simple as virtualized hardware and software plus advanced monitoring and resource management technologies. To say it straight and clear, without virtualization, cloud computing would leave the data unstable, uncontrolled, and unsafe. It is an important and probably an inseparable element of cloud computing services. Virtualization allows us to consolidate multiple physical components so that they can be managed in one place. With the help of virtualization, organizations have better visibility and also greater control of their infrastructure making security management simpler for the cloud. It is due to virtualization that cloud computing services are so cost-effective. Moreover, it is also responsible for the simplicity of delivering services by providing a platform for optimizing complex IT resources.

A few examples to convince you of the above thought : 

Intelligent use of single computers:

Virtualization software enables 1 computer to perform as though it were 20 computers. It empowers you to move your data center with thousands of computers to a single one that supports as few as a couple of hundred.

Virtual memory:

Computer systems can use virtual memory to borrow extra memory from the hard disk. Although it performs slower than the disk spaces, this substitution works considerably well.

Efficient use of IT resources:

Cloud data storage services let you optimize your resources/capacity based on your needs. Whenever you need more capacity, you can easily leverage the cloud provider’s infrastructure.

Easily migrate and balance workload:

When your workloads vary greatly (mostly happens with eCommerce websites), the cloud computing environments can proactively add more capacity in anticipation of the need.

Hypervisor

A hypervisor is an operating system, which means that it knows how to act as a traffic cop to make things happen in an orderly manner. The hypervisor sits at the lowest levels of the hardware environment. Because in cloud computing you need to support many different operating environments, the hypervisor becomes an ideal delivery mechanism. The hypervisor lets you show the same application on lots of systems without having to physically copy that application onto each system. One twist: Because of the hypervisor architecture, it can load any (or many) different operating systems as though it were just another application. Therefore, the hypervisor is a very practical way of getting things virtualized quickly and efficiently. The hypervisor installed on the server hardware controls the guest operating system running on the host machine. Its main job is to cater to the needs of the guest operating system and effectively manage it such that the instances of multiple operating systems do not interrupt one another.

Hypervisors can be divided into two types:

Type 1:

Also known as native or bare-metal hypervisors, these run directly on the host computer’s hardware to control the hardware resources and manage guest operating systems. Examples of Type 1 hypervisors include VMware ESXi, Citrix XenServer, and Microsoft Hyper-V hypervisor.

Type 2:

Also known as hosted hypervisors, these run within a formal operating system environment. In this type, the hypervisor runs as a distinct second layer while the operating system runs as a third layer above the hardware.