Virtualisierungsplattformen

Virtualisierun..., often truncated from the German term Virtualisierung, refers to the process and set of technologies for creating virtual representations of computing resources. These resources can include hardware platforms, storage systems, networks, and even operating environments, allowing multiple virtual instances to run on a single physical unit. The central idea is abstraction: software components interact with virtual resources as if they were independent, while the underlying hardware is shared and managed by a hypervisor, firmware, or orchestration layer.

Common forms of virtualization include server virtualization, desktop virtualization, application virtualization, network virtualization, and storage virtualization. Server virtualization uses hypervisors to partition a physical server into multiple isolated virtual machines. Desktop virtualization enables remote or centralized access to desktop environments. Application virtualization streams or encapsulates applications to run without being installed locally. Network virtualization creates virtual networks on top of physical networks; storage virtualization pools storage resources across devices.

Containerization, often grouped with virtualization, provides operating system–level isolation where multiple containers share the same kernel but run as separate instances. Tools such as Docker and Kubernetes are widely used for packaging and orchestrating containerized workloads.

Benefits include improved hardware utilization, flexible deployment, faster provisioning, easier disaster recovery, and better isolation between workloads. Challenges involve security considerations, potential performance overhead, management and licensing complexity, and the need for robust governance and monitoring.

Historically, virtualization emerged in mainframe environments and gained widespread adoption with x86 hypervisors in the late 1990s and 2000s, followed by the rise of open-source solutions and container technologies that have driven cloud computing and scalable architectures.