What is cloud computing?

Cloud computing is an internet based new age computer technology. It is the next stage
technology that uses the clouds to provide the services whenever and wherever the user need
it.It provides a method to access several servers world wide.

What are the benefits of cloud computing?

The main benefits of cloud computing are:

o Data backup and storage of data.

o Powerful server capabilities.
o Incremented productivity.
o Very cost effective and time saving.
o Software as Service known as SaaS.

Characteristics of Cloud Computing

Types of virtualization
Hardware Virtualization
When the virtual machine software or virtual machine manager (VMM) is directly installed on the
hardware system is known as hardware virtualization.
The main job of hypervisor is to control and monitoring the processor, memory and other hardware
resources.
After virtualization of hardware system we can install different operating system on it and run
different applications on those OS.

Usage: Hardware virtualization is mainly done for the server platforms, because controlling virtual
machines is much easier than controlling a physical server.

Operating System Virtualization:

When the virtual machine software or virtual machine manager (VMM) is installed on the Host
operating system instead of directly on the hardware system is known as operating system
virtualization.
Usage: Operating System Virtualization is mainly used for testing the applications on different
platforms of OS.
Application Virtualization – hosting individual applications in a virtual environment separate from the
native OS
Desktop Virtualization

This is perhaps the most common form of virtualization for any regular IT employee. The
user’s desktop is stored on a remote server, allowing the user to access his desktop from any
device or location. Employees can work conveniently from the comfort of their homes. Since
the data transfer takes place over secure protocols, any risk of data theft is minimized.

Memory Virtualization

Physical memory across different servers is aggregated into a single virtualized memory pool.
It provides the benefit of an enlarged contiguous working memory. You may already be
familiar with this, as some OS such as Microsoft Windows OS allows a portion of your
storage disk to serve as an extension of your RAM.

Storage Virtualization:
Storage virtualization is the process of grouping the physical storage from multiple network storage
devices so that it looks like a single storage device. Storage virtualization is also implemented by
using software applications. Usage: Storage virtualization is mainly done for back-up and recovery
purposes.

Data virtualization
is the process of retrieve data from various resources without knowing its type and physical location
where it is stored. It collects heterogeneous data from different resources and allows data users across
the organization to access this data according to their work requirements. This heterogeneous data can
be accessed using any application such as web portals, web services, E-commerce, Software as a
Service (SaaS), and mobile application.
We can use Data Virtualization in the field of data integration, business intelligence, and cloud
computing.

Server Virtualization
● Server Virtualization is the process of dividing a physical server into several virtual servers, called
virtual private servers. Each virtual private server can run independently.
● The concept of Server Virtualization widely used in the IT infrastructure to minimizes the costs by
increasing the utilization of existing resources.

Hypervisor
The hypervisor is a hardware virtualization technique that allows multiple guest operating systems
(OS) to run on a single host system at the same time. A hypervisor is sometimes also called a virtual
machine manager(VMM). 
TYPE-1 Hypervisor: 

The hypervisor runs directly on the underlying host system. It is also known as “Native Hypervisor”
or “Bare metal hypervisor”.
It does not require any base server operating system.
It has direct access to hardware resources. Examples of Type 1 hypervisors include VMware ESXi,
Citrix XenServer and Microsoft Hyper-V hypervisor. 

Pros:
Such kind of hypervisors are very efficient because they have direct access to the physical hardware
resources(like Cpu, Memory, Network, Physical storage). This causes the empowerment the security
because there is nothing any kind of the third party resource so that attacker couldn’t compromise
with anything. 

Type 2 Hypervisor

A Host operating system runs on the underlying host system. It is also known as ‘Hosted
Hypervisor”. Such kind of hypervisors doesn’t run directly over the underlying hardware
rather they run as an application in a Host system(physical machine). Basically, software
installed on an operating system. Hypervisor asks the operating system to make hardware
calls. Example of Type 2 hypervisor includes VMware Player or Parallels Desktop. Hosted
hypervisors are often found on endpoints like PCs.  The type-2 hypervisor is are very useful
for engineers, security analyst(for checking malware, or malicious source code and newly
developed applications).

Pros & Cons of Type-2 Hypervisor:

Pros: Such kind of hypervisors allows quick and easy access to a guest Operating System
alongside the host machine running. These hypervisors usually come with additional useful
features for guest machine. Such tools enhance the coordination between the host machine
and guest machine.

Cons: Here there is no direct access to the physical hardware resources so the efficiency of
these hypervisors lags in performance as compared to the type-1 hypervisors, and potential
security risks are also there an attacker can compromise the security weakness if there is
access to the host operating system so he can also access the guest operating system.