The Ins and Outs of Virtualization and Open-Source Virtual Machine Solutions

Virtualization is a hot topic in IT and, when achieved, can help organizations find new agility, flexibility and scalability for their IT infrastructure, lessen the burden on IT professionals, and generate cost savings.

On this episode of On Air with Pinnacle, Brandy Semore, Chief Architect, Partners, Red Hat and Jim Garrett Senior Director, Professional Services Engagement, Pinnacle Business Systems talked listeners through the ins and outs of this trending term.

“When I think of virtualization, first of all, the thing that I think about is that it’s really just a buzzword at this point,” Garrett said. “The simple explanation is that you have a virtual version of something that’s generally used for some type of execution.”

For example, digitally separating a physical hard drive into two “virtual” hard drives is an example of virtualization.

There are five key concepts in virtualization, Garrett said:

• Operating System Virtualization
• Server Virtualization
• Application Virtualization
• Network Virtualization
• Storage Virtualization

A lot of virtualization, today, is done via software. That’s a huge differentiator from the early days of connectivity.

Red Hat offers open-source virtualization, meaning it isn’t tied to proprietary licenses. Red Hat’s kernel-based virtual machines, or KVM, leverage open source virtualization technology that turns Linux into a hypervisor.

“This is a really important point to understand,” Garrett said. “[If you’ve got Linux], you’ve got KVM. You don’t need to buy any additional software. … You can deploy and run virtual machines by the dozens simply because you’ve chosen Linux as your operating system.”

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