Unit 3: Cloud Virtualization technology (10 Hrs.

)
 Introduction to Virtualization,
 different types of Virtualization,
 Implementation Levels of Virtualization Structures,
 Benefits of virtualization,
 server virtualization,
 virtualization software,
 Types of Hypervisor, and Load balancing,
 Infrastructure requirement for virtualization

Introduction to Virtualization
 Virtualization is a process that allows for more efficient utilization of physical computer
hardware and is the foundation of cloud computing.
 This technique helps to divide the computer resources logically
 Virtualization helps us to create software-based or virtual versions of a computer resource.
These computer resources can include computing devices, storage, networks, servers,
or even applications.
 It allows organizations to partition a single physical computer or server into several virtual
machines (VM). Each VM can then interact independently and run different operating
systems or applications while sharing the resources of a single computer.
 Virtualization uses software to create an abstraction layer over computer hardware that
allows the hardware elements of a single computer—processors, memory, storage and
more—to be divided into multiple virtual computers, commonly called virtual
machines (VMs). Each VM runs its own operating system (OS) and behaves like an
independent computer, even though it is running on just a portion of the actual
underlying computer hardware.
How Does Virtualization Work?
 Hypervisor software facilitates virtualization. A hypervisor sits on top of an operating
system but we can also have hypervisors that are installed directly onto the
hardware. Hypervisors take physical resources and divide them up so that virtual
environments can use them.
 When a user or program issues an instruction to the VM that requires additional
resources from the physical environment, the hypervisor relays the request to the
physical system and caches the changes.
 A virtual machine created by a hypervisor functions as a single data file, and we can
move it from one computer to another, open it there, and it works the same as on any
other machine. Thus, it provides a lot of flexibility and portability.

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Different types of Virtualization
 A hypervisor, also known as a Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM), is a layer of
virtualization software that allows the creation and running of several virtual machines
within a single server, as well as different operating systems.
 The server where the hypervisor runs one or more virtual machines is commonly known as
a “host machine”, while each individual VM is commonly known as a “guest machine”.
 Hypervisors are in-charge of separating the resources of the virtual machine from the
hardware system and of distributing them properly.
 Hypervisors are available in two categories:
o Type 1 hypervisors (native/bare metal hypervisors)
o Type 2 hypervisors (hosted hypervisors)

Type 1 hypervisors (native/bare metal hypervisors)

 A Type 1 hypervisor is installed directly on top of the physical machine.
 Fig 1 below illustrates more about type 1 hypervisor.

 Type 1 hypervisors are also known as bare-metal hypervisors due to the nature of
their installation type.

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  These categories of hypervisors are more popular and secure than the Type 2
hypervisors.
 Type 1 hypervisors have a lower amount of latency and are the most used in the
market.
 Some examples of these hypervisors are VMware ESXi, Microsoft Hyper-V, or open-
source Kernel-based VMs (KVMs).
 The various Type 1 hypervisors are as :

1. VMware ESX and ESXi

 These hypervisors offer advanced features and scalability, but require licensing, so the
costs are higher.
 There are some lower-cost bundles that VMware offers and they can make hypervisor
technology more affordable for small infrastructures.
 VMware is the leader in the Type-1 hypervisors. Their vSphere/ESXi product
is available in a free edition and 5 commercial editions.

2. Microsoft Hyper-V

 The Microsoft hypervisor, Hyper-V doesn’t offer many of the advanced features that
VMware’s products provide.
However, with XenServer and vSphere, Hyper-V is one of the top 3 Type-1
hypervisors.
 It was first released with Windows Server, but now Hyper-V has been greatly
enhanced with Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V. Hyper-V is available in both a free
edition (with no GUI and no virtualization rights) and 4 commercial editions –
Foundations (OEM only), Essentials, Standard, and Datacentre. Hyper-V

3. Citrix XenServer

 It began as an open source project.

 The core hypervisor technology is free, but like VMware’s free ESXi, it has almost no
advanced features.
 Xen is a type-1 bare-metal hypervisor. Just as Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization uses
KVM, Citrix uses Xen in the commercial XenServer.
 Today, the Xen open source projects and community are at Xen.org. Today,
XenServer is a commercial type-1 hypervisor solution from Citrix, offered in 4
editions. Confusingly, Citrix has also branded their other proprietary solutions like
XenApp and XenDesktop with the Xen name.

4. Oracle VM

 The Oracle hypervisor is based on the open source Xen.

 However, if you need hypervisor support and product updates, it will cost you.
 Oracle VM lacks many of the advanced features found in other bare-metal
virtualization hypervisors.

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Type 2 Hypervisors (Hosted)

 On the other hand, for Type 2 hypervisors, there is a layer of host OS that sits
between the physical server and the hypervisor. For this reason, we call these
hypervisors “hosted hypervisors”.

 They are less common and mostly used for end-user virtualization.
 They are known to have more latency compared to Type 1 due to their hosted nature.
 Type 2 hypervisors include Oracle VirtualBox or VMware Workstation.
 The various Type 2 hypervisors are illustrated as follow:

1. VMware Workstation/Fusion/Player

 VMware Player is a free virtualization hypervisor.

 It is intended to run only one virtual machine (VM) and does not allow creating VMs.
VMware Workstation is a more robust hypervisor with some advanced features, such
as record-and-replay and VM snapshot support.
 VMware Workstation has three major use cases:
o for running multiple different operating systems or versions of one OS on one
desktop,
o for developers that need sandbox environments and snapshots, or
o for labs and demonstration purposes.

2. VMware Server

 VMware Server is a free, hosted virtualization hypervisor that’s very similar to the
VMware Workstation.
 VMware has halted development on Server since 2009

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3. Microsoft Virtual PC

 This is the latest Microsoft’s version of this hypervisor technology, Windows Virtual
PC and runs only on Windows 7 and supports only Windows operating systems running
on it.

4. Oracle VM VirtualBox

 VirtualBox hypervisor technology provides reasonable performance and features if you

want to virtualize on a budget. Despite being a free, hosted product with a very small
footprint, VirtualBox shares many features with VMware vSphere and Microsoft
Hyper-V.

5. Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization

 Red Hat’s Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) has qualities of both a hosted and a
bare-metal virtualization hypervisor. It can turn the Linux kernel itself into a hypervisor
so the VMs have direct access to the physical hardware.

KVM

 This is a virtualization infrastructure for the Linux kernel. It supports native

virtualization on processors with hardware virtualization extensions.
 The open-source KVM (or Kernel-Based Virtual Machine) is a Linux-based type-1
hypervisor that can be added to most Linux operating systems including Ubuntu,
Debian, SUSE, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux, but also Solaris, and Windows.
Types of Virtualization
 Virtualization is classified into several categories based on the resource we virtualize.
 The numerous types of Virtualization are:
1. Application Virtualization.
2. Network Virtualization.
3. Desktop Virtualization.
4. Storage Virtualization.
5. Server Virtualization.
6. Data virtualization.
7. Application virtualization
1. Application Virtualization:
 Application virtualization helps a user to have remote access of an application from a
server. The server stores all personal information and other characteristics of the
application but can still run on a local workstation through the internet.
 Example of this would be a user who needs to run two different versions of the same
software.
 Technologies that use application virtualization are hosted applications and packaged
applications.

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2. Network Virtualization:
 Network virtualization uses software to create a “view” of the network that an
administrator can use to manage the network from a single console.
 It abstracts hardware elements and functions (e.g., connections, switches, routers, etc.)
and abstracts them into software running on a hypervisor.
 The network administrator can modify and control these elements without touching the
underlying physical components, which dramatically simplifies network management.
 Types of network virtualization include software-defined networking (SDN), which
virtualizes hardware that controls network traffic routing (called the “control plane”),
and network function virtualization (NFV), which virtualizes one or more hardware
appliances that provide a specific network function (e.g., a firewall, load balancer, or
traffic analyser), making those appliances easier to configure, provision, and manage.
3. Desktop Virtualization:
 Desktop virtualization lets you run multiple desktop operating systems, each in its own
VM on the same computer.
 There are two types of desktop virtualization:
o Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) runs multiple desktops in VMs on a
central server and streams them to users who log in on thin client devices. In
this way, VDI lets an organization provide its users access to variety of OS's
from any device, without installing OS's on any device.
o Local desktop virtualization runs a hypervisor on a local computer, enabling
the user to run one or more additional OSs on that computer and switch from
one OS to another as needed without changing anything about the primary OS.
 Desktop virtualization allows the users’ OS to be remotely stored on a server in the data
centre. It allows the user to access their desktop virtually, from any location by a
different machine.
 Main benefits of desktop virtualization are user mobility, portability, easy management
of software installation, updates, and patches.
4. Storage Virtualization:
 Storage virtualization enables all the storage devices on the network— whether they’re
installed on individual servers or standalone storage units—to be accessed and managed
as a single storage device.
 Specifically, storage virtualization masses all blocks of storage into a single shared pool
from which they can be assigned to any VM on the network as needed. Storage
virtualization makes it easier to provision storage for VMs and makes maximum use of
all available storage on the network.
 Storage virtualization is an array of servers that are managed by a virtual storage
system. The servers aren’t aware of exactly where their data is stored, and instead
function more like worker bees in a hive. It makes managing storage from multiple
sources to be managed and utilized as a single repository.
 Storage virtualization software maintains smooth operations, consistent performance
and a continuous suite of advanced functions despite changes, break down and
differences in the underlying equipment.
5. Server Virtualization:
 This is a kind of virtualization in which masking of server resources takes place.
 Here, the central-server (physical server) is divided into multiple different virtual
servers by changing the identity number, processors. So, each system can operate its

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 own operating systems in isolate manner. Where each sub-server knows the identity of
the central server.
 It causes an increase in the performance and reduces the operating cost by the
deployment of main server resources into a sub-server resource.
 It’s beneficial in virtual migration, reduce energy consumption, reduce infrastructural
cost, etc.
6. Data virtualization:
 Modern enterprises store data from multiple applications, using multiple file formats,
in multiple locations, ranging from the cloud to on-premise hardware and software
systems.
 Data virtualization lets any application access all of that data—irrespective of source,
format, or location.
 Data virtualization tools create a software layer between the applications accessing the
data and the systems storing it. The layer translates an application’s data request or
query as needed and returns results that can span multiple systems.
 Data virtualization can help break down data silos when other types of integration aren’t
feasible, desirable, or affordable.
 This is the kind of virtualization in which the data is collected from various sources and
managed that at a single place without knowing more about the technical information
like how data is collected, stored & formatted then arranged that data logically so that
its virtual view can be accessed by its interested people and stakeholders, and users
through the various cloud services remotely. Many big giant companies are providing
their services like Oracle, IBM, At scale, Cdata, etc.
 It can be used to performing various kind of tasks such as:
 Data-integration
 Business-integration
 Service-oriented architecture data-services
 Searching organizational data
7. Application virtualization
 Application virtualization runs application software without installing it directly on the
user’s OS.
 This differs from complete desktop virtualization (mentioned above) because only the
application runs in a virtual environment—the OS on the end user’s device runs as
usual.
 There are three types of application virtualization:
o Local application virtualization: The entire application runs on the endpoint
device but runs in a runtime environment instead of on the native hardware.
o Application streaming: The application lives on a server which sends small
components of the software to run on the end user's device when needed.
o Server-based application virtualization: The application runs entirely on a
server that sends only its user interface to the client device.

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Implementation Levels of Virtualization Structures in Cloud Computing
 Virtualization is a computer architecture technology by which multiple virtual
machines (VMs) are multiplexed in the same hardware machine.
 The purpose of a VM is to enhance resource sharing by many users and improve
computer performance in terms of resource utilization and application flexibility. The
idea is to separate the hardware from the software to yield better system efficiency.
 A traditional computer runs with a host operating system specially tailored for its
hardware architecture, as shown in Figure. After virtualization, different user
applications managed by their own operating systems (guest OS) can run on the same
hardware, independent of the host OS. This is often done by adding additional software,
called a virtualization layer as shown in Figure.

 Virtualization can be implemented at various operational levels, as given below:

o Instruction set architecture (ISA) level
o Hardware level
o Operating system level
o Library support level
o Application level

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1.) Instruction Set Architecture Level (ISA)
 ISA virtualization can work through ISA emulation. This is used to run many legacy
codes that were written for a different configuration of hardware. These codes run on
any virtual machine using the ISA. With this, a binary code that originally needed some
additional layers to run is now capable of running on the x86 machines. It can also be
tweaked to run on the x64 machine. With ISA, it is possible to make the virtual machine
hardware agnostic.
 For the basic emulation, an interpreter is needed, which interprets the source code and
then converts it into a hardware format that can be read. This then allows processing.
2.) Hardware Abstraction Level (HAL)
 True to its name HAL lets the virtualization perform at the level of the hardware. This
makes use of a hypervisor which is used for functioning.
 At this level, the virtual machine is formed, and this manages the hardware using the
process of virtualization. It allows the virtualization of each of the hardware
components, which could be the input-output device, the memory, the processor, etc.
 Multiple users will not be able to use the same hardware and also use multiple
virtualization instances at the very same time. This is mostly used in the cloud-based
infrastructure.
3.) Operating System Level
 At the level of the operating system, the virtualization model is capable of creating a
layer that is abstract between the operating system and the application. This is an
isolated container that is on the operating system and the physical server, which makes
use of the software and hardware. Each of these then functions in the form of a server.

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  When there are several users, and no one wants to share the hardware, then this is where
the virtualization level is used. Every user will get his virtual environment using a
virtual hardware resource that is dedicated. In this way, there is no question of any
conflict.
4.) Library Level
 The operating system is cumbersome, and this is when the applications make use of the
API that is from the libraries at a user level.
 These APIs are documented well, and this is why the library virtualization level is
preferred in these scenarios.
 API hooks make it possible as it controls the link of communication from the
application to the system.
5.) Application Level
 The application-level virtualization is used when there is a desire to virtualize only one
application and is the last of the implementation levels of virtualization in cloud
computing. One does not need to virtualize the entire environment of the platform.
 This is generally used when you run virtual machines that use high-level languages.
The application will sit above the virtualization layer, which in turn sits on the
application program.
 It lets the high-level language programs compiled to be used in the application level of
the virtual machine run seamlessly.
Benefits of Virtualization
 There are benefits of virtualization in Cloud Computing.
 The ones that impact most have been discussed below with the indulgence of nuances
that helps in a progressive comprehension of Virtualization’s importance in the context
of Cloud Computing.

Security
 Security has to be one of the most lucrative aspects of adopting virtualization since it is
a recurrent concern.
 The security is provided via firewalls that help in preventing any unauthorized access,
keeping the data safe and confidential.
 The firewall also produces additional security from other cyber threats or virus attacks.
 The protocols also include encryption that automatically protects data from the other
threads. The users can easily virtualize their data and create a backup of the same data
on a separate server if they feel the need to.

Flexibility in operations
 With virtualization, professionals can work at ease since the process is more
streamlined and agile. The network switch that is implemented presently creates ease
of access and use which also saves time.
 Virtualization has also helped in troubleshooting technical errors happening in any one
of the connected devices. It also eradicates the problem of retaining or recovering any
lost data due to any corrupted device or a crashed one.

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Economical agility
 It is one of the primary reasons for a faster adoption rate of virtualization. This
technique can save companies from spending a fortune on physical devices and servers.
With the virtual environment, data can be stored on the virtual; servers.
 It also impacts on the relentless use of electricity (which would have been the case if
there were multiple physical servers and devices), reducing the bills while running
multiple instances of an operating system and applications across the network of users
and companies.

Flexibility in data transfer

 The data transferred to the virtual servers can be retained anytime. So, that automates
the process of finding data easier since the users won’t be wasting any time to get what
they need.
 With virtualization at the user’s disposal, they can easily locate and transfer specific
data to their respective administrator without any security dispute. The transfer will
have no data cap and can sustain long-distance transfers, that too at a nominal charge.
Additional storage units in the virtual threshold of servers can also reduce the cost.

Cost Savings
 The ability to run multiple virtual machines in one piece of physical
infrastructure drastically reduces the footprint and the associated cost. Moreover,
as this consolidation is done at the core, we don’t need to maintain as many servers. We
also have a reduction in electricity consumption and the overall maintenance cost.
Server virtualization

 Server virtualization is the process of creating multiple server instances from one
physical server. Each server instance represents an isolated virtual environment. Within
each virtual environment, you can run a separate operating system

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  Server virtualization is the process of creating multiple server instances from one
physical server. Each server instance represents an isolated virtual environment. Within
each virtual environment, you can run a separate operating system.
How Does Server Virtualization Work?
 To create virtual server instances you first need to set up a virtualization software. This
essential piece of software is called a hypervisor. Its main role is to create a
virtualization layer that separates CPU / Processors, RAM and other physical resources
from the virtual instances.
 Once you install the hypervisor on your host machine, you can use that virtualization
software to emulate the physical resources and create a new virtual server on top of it.
 There are different types of server virtualization. The distinction between them is
mainly based on the level of isolation they provide, which is also related to how much
hardware resources they emulate.
Types of Server Virtualization
 There are three (3) approaches to server virtualization based on the isolation they
provide:
1. Full virtualization or virtual machine model
2. Paravirtual machine model
3. Virtualization at the OS level
 Note: A hypervisor is also called a Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM). The hardware
on which it is installed is labelled as the host machine. The virtual resources, created
and managed by the hypervisor, are known as virtual or guest machines.
1. Virtual Machine Model or Full Virtualization
 In a full virtual machine model, the hypervisor completely isolates guest machines. It
shares the hardware of the host machine but runs as if being on a completely
autonomous computer, unaware of the hypervisor and its role.
 These VMs see themselves as self-reliant and efficient. Therefore you do not need to
adapt or specially modify their instances of operating systems.

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2. Paravirtual Machine
 When you need multiple virtual machines and have flexible resource sharing, a fully
virtualized environment may not be necessary. In this case, a para-virtualized
environment may better suit the situation.
 The para-virtual model eliminates the need for the VM to trap privileged instructions,
making it more time efficient and less intrusive to the system. The operating systems
acknowledge the existence of a hypervisor and communicate directly with it by sending
comments known as hypercalls.
 For this communication to take place, both the hypervisor and the operating systems
are specialized to exchange hypercalls. Consequently, para-virtualization requires a
paravirtualized hypervisor and operating systems. These are modified by implementing
an API (application programming interface) to enable them to communicate through
hypercalls.
3. Operating System Layer

 Virtualization at the OS level is a feature of an operating system which has a kernel that
allows the existence of multiple user-space instances. We call this type of
virtualization containerization and these user-space instances containers (partitions,
virtual environments or jails).
 Programs can run inside the container but are restricted only to the content of the
container and devices assigned to that container. Unlike the primary OS, these user-
space instances believe they have all available resources but are limited to the resources
allocated to the container.
 As this level of virtualization uses the same OS and kernel as the host, it can only differ
from its host by the version of OS. Therefore it is limited as it can’t have a different OS
than its host.
Virtualization software
 The software virtualizations are basically used to emulate a complete computer system
and it further allows the operating system to run.
 Some of the examples are VMware software, Virtual Box etc. Like, Hardware
Virtualization, here we will discuss advantages, working and types of software
virtualization.

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  Software Visualization in Cloud Computing allows the single computer server to run
one or more virtual environments. It is quite similar to virtualizations but here it
abstracts the software installation procedure and creates a virtual software out of it.
 In software virtualizations, an application will be installed which will perform the
further task. One software is physical while others are virtual as it allows 2 or more
operating system using only one computer.
Benefits of Software Virtualization
 Here, is the list of Software Virtualization Advantages in Cloud Computing :
Testing
 It is easier to test the new operating system and software on VMs as it does not require
any additional hardware and the testing can do within the same software. After the
testing, the VM can move or delete for the further testing.
Utilization
 In software virtualization, there is higher efficiency in resource utilization if it tunes
correctly. The VM can modify as per the requirement such as the user can modify ram,
drive space, etc. It requires very less amount of hardware as compared to the equivalent
number of physical machines.
Efficient
 It is efficient in a way such that it can run 12 virtual machines and eliminates the use of
12 physical boxes. This is the power cost as well as the cost of maintaining the server.
Less Downtime
 The software is upgrading and the upgrade in the VMs can do when the VM is working.
VM can modify when it is working or it is not working which means that the downtime
of it is very less.
Flexible
 It provides flexibility to the user so that the user can modify the software as per their
demand. The modification can do within minutes and can adjust easily when the
workload changes.
Secure
 It can protect with many Hantaviruses. Moreover, there are several firewalls which
prevent hacking and virus. The data in the software virtualization is safe as it stores in
several different places so if the disaster takes place the data can retrieve easily.
Types of Software Virtualization
i. Operating System Virtualization
ii. Application Virtualization
iii. Service Virtualization
i. Operating System Virtualization
 In operating system virtualization, the hardware is used which consists of software on
which different operating systems work. Here, the operating system does not interfere
with each other so that each one of them works efficiently.

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ii. Application Virtualization
 Application virtualization is a technology, encapsulates the computer program within
the operating system. It can say that application virtualizations refer to running an
application on a thin client.
 This thin client runs an environment, which is different from what refer to as
encapsulating from the operating system which is the location of it.
iii. Service Virtualization
 In the service virtualization, the DevOps team can use the virtual servers rather than the
physical one. It emulates the behaviour of essential components which will be present
in the final production environment.
 With the help of service virtualization, the complex application can go through testing
much earlier in the development process. It can say that service visualization is a
technique to simulate the behaviour of some components in a mixture of component-
based applications
 So, this was all about Software Virtualization. Hope you like our explanation.
Load balancing
 Cloud Load balancing is the process of distributing workloads and computing resources
across one or more servers. This kind of distribution ensures maximum throughput in
minimum response time.

 Load Balancing is a feature that ensures optimization in the utilization of Hyper-V

hosts’ resources within a cluster. A VM load can become uneven over time; as a
result, Hyper-V hosts can become either more or less loaded.
 A website or a web-application can be accessed by a plenty of users at any point of
time. It becomes difficult for a web application to manage all these user requests at one
time. It may even result in system breakdowns. For a website owner, whose entire work
is dependent on his portal, the sinking feeling of website being down or not accessible
also brings lost potential customers.
 Here, the load balancer plays an important role.
 Cloud Load balancing is the process of distributing workloads and computing resources
across one or more servers. This kind of distribution ensures maximum throughput in
minimum response time. The workload is segregated among two or more servers, hard
drives, network interfaces or other computing resources, enabling better resource
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 utilization and system response time. Thus, for a high traffic website, effective use of
cloud load balancing can ensure business continuity.
 The common objectives of using load balancers are:
 To maintain system firmness.
 To improve system performance.
 To protect against system failures.
How does load balancing work?
 Here, load refers to not only the website traffic but also includes CPU load, network
load and memory capacity of each server. A load balancing technique makes sure that
each system in the network has same amount of work at any instant of time. This means
neither any of them is excessively over-loaded, nor under-utilized.
 The load balancer distributes data depending upon how busy each server or node is. In
the absence of a load balancer, the client must wait while his process gets processed,
which might be too tiring and demotivating for him.
 Various information like jobs waiting in queue, CPU processing rate, job arrival rate
etc. are exchanged between the processors during the load balancing process. Failure
in the right application of load balancers can lead to serious consequences, data getting
lost being one of them.

 Different companies may use different load balancers and multiple load balancing
algorithms like static and dynamic load balancing. One of the most commonly used
methods is Round-robin load balancing.
 It forwards client request to each connected server in turn. On reaching the end, the load
balancer loops back and repeats the list again. The major benefit is its ease of
implementation. The load balancers check the system heartbeats during set time
intervals to verify whether each node is performing well or not.

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 Advantages of Cloud Load Balancing:
a) High Performing applications
 Cloud load balancing techniques, unlike their traditional on-premise counterparts, are
less expensive and simple to implement. Enterprises can make their client applications
work faster and deliver better performances, that too at potentially lower costs.
b) Increased scalability
 Cloud balancing takes help of cloud’s scalability and agility to maintain website traffic.
By using efficient load balancers, you can easily match up the increased user traffic and
distribute it among various servers or network devices. It is especially important for
ecommerce websites, who deals with thousands of website visitors every second.
During sale or other promotional offers they need such effective load balancers to
distribute workloads.
c) Ability to handle sudden traffic spikes
 A normally running University site can completely go down during any result
declaration. This is because too many requests can arrive at the same time. If they are
using cloud load balancers, they do not need to worry about such traffic surges. No
matter how large the request is, it can be wisely distributed among different servers for
generating maximum results in less response time.
d) Business continuity with complete flexibility
 The basic objective of using a load balancer is to save or protect a website from sudden
outages. When the workload is distributed among various servers or network units, even
if one node fails the burden can be shifted to another active node.
 Thus, with increased redundancy, scalability and other features load balancing easily
handles website or application traffic.
 Cloud providers like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft
Azure and Google offer cloud load balancing to facilitate easy distribution of
workloads.
 For ex: AWS offers Elastic Load balancing (ELB) technology to distribute traffic
among EC2 instances.

Infrastructure requirement for virtualization

 Virtualization is the foundation of cloud computing. It enables creation of an intelligent
layer of abstraction to hide the intricacies of the software or hardware that is underlying
beneath the layer.
 A hypervisor sits on top of an operating system but we can also have hypervisors that
are installed directly onto the hardware. Hypervisors take physical resources and divide
them up so that virtual environments can use them.
 In order to run virtualization, we need the proper hardware devices to be stacked
together.
 The following pool of resources are needed in order to run virtualization as
o Dedicated Servers (RAM, hard disk, CPU etc.)
o Storage
o Networking devices etc.

The below diagram illustrates more about the infrastructures required for virtualization

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