Virtualizing

Virtualizing is the process of creating a virtual version of something—such as a computer hardware platform, storage device, or network resource—so that multiple virtual instances can run on a single physical system. The goal is to improve resource utilization, flexibility, and isolation, while simplifying management and deployment.

In computing, hardware virtualization uses a hypervisor to partition physical resources into multiple virtual machines (VMs). Hypervisors are Type 1 (bare-metal) or Type 2 (hosted). Type 1 runs directly on hardware; Type 2 runs within an existing host OS. Modern CPUs provide hardware-assisted virtualization features (for example Intel VT-x and AMD-V) to reduce overhead.

Operating-system-level virtualization, or containers, provides isolated user-space instances within a single OS kernel; these are lighter than full VMs and share the host kernel but still offer process and file-system separation.

Other forms include storage virtualization (abstracting storage devices) and network virtualization (virtual networks, SDN).

Virtualization is central to cloud computing and data centers, enabling IaaS, multi-tenant environments, rapid provisioning, and disaster recovery.

Challenges include performance overhead, security implications of sharing hardware/host OS, licensing, and management complexity. Proper isolation, resource governance (quotas, limits), and secure configurations are essential.

Virtualization is distinct from emulation, which impersonates hardware at a lower level and can run software for a different architecture.