VIRTUALIZATION

GROUP MEMBERS

MOHAMED
MARCUS
NURDIN
ALEX
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Definition of Virtualization
 Virtualization uses software to create an abstraction layer over the physical hardware. In
doing so, it creates a virtual compute system, known as virtual machines (VMs). This
allows organizations to run multiple virtual computers, operating systems, and applications
on a single physical server. Simply put, it’s a more efficient use of the physical computer
hardware; this, in turn, provides a greater return on a company’s investment.
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Types of virtualization

 Desktop Virtualization
The virtualization of the desktop, which sometimes is referred to as Virtual Desktop Infrastructure
(VDI), is where a desktop operating system (OS), such as Windows 7, will run as a virtual machine
on a physical server with other virtual desktops. The processing of multiple virtual desktops occurs
on one or a few physical servers, typically at the centralized data centre. The copy of the OS and
applications that each end user utilizes will typically be cached in memory as one image on the
physical server.
 Application Virtualization
Application virtualization uses software to package an application into a “single executable and run
anywhere” type of application. The software application is separated from the operating system and
runs in what is referred to as a “sandbox.” Virtualizing the application allows things like the registry
and configuration changes to appear to run in the underlying operating system, although they really
are running in the sandbox. There are two types of application virtualization: remote and streaming
of the application.
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Cont…

 Server Virtualization
Server virtualization allows for many virtual machines to run on one physical server. The virtual servers share the
resources of the physical server, which leads to better utilization of the physical servers resources. The
resources that the virtual machines share are CPU, memory, storage, and networking. All of these resources are
provided to the virtual machines through the hypervisor of the physical server.

 The hypervisor is the operating system and software that operate on the physical box. Each virtual machine runs
independently of the other virtual machines on the same box. The virtual machines can have different operating
systems and are isolated from each other. The server virtualization offers a way to consolidate applications that
used to run on individual physical servers, and now with the hypervisor software runs on the same physical
server represented by virtual machines. Server virtualization is what most people think of when they think of
virtualization, due to VMware’s vSphere, which has a large percentage of the marketplace. In addition, some of
the other vendors are, Citrix XenServer, Microsoft’s Hyper-V, and Red Hat’s Enterprise Virtualization.
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Cont…

 Storage Virtualization
Storage virtualization is the process of grouping physical storage using software to represent what appears to be a single storage
device in a virtual format. Correlations can be made between storage virtualization and traditional virtual machines, since both
take physical hardware and resources and abstract access to them. There is a difference between a traditional virtual machine
and a virtual storage. The virtual machine is a set of files, while virtual storage typically runs in memory on the storage controller
that is created using software.

 Network Virtualization
Network virtualization is using software to perform network functionality by decoupling the virtual networks from the underlying
network hardware. Once you start using network virtualization, the physical network is only used for packet forwarding, so all of
the management is done using the virtual or software-based switches. When VMware’ ESX server grew in popularity, it included a
virtual switch that allowed enough network management and data transfer to happen inside of the ESX host. This paradigm shift
caught the eye of Cisco, so when VMware was upgrading to vSphere 4.0, Cisco helped to write the code for VMware’s new
Distributed Switch. This helped Cisco learn how to work and design network virtualization, and an internal movement was started
to write all of the Cisco switches to be software-based administrative entities.
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Benefits of Virtualization

Virtualizing your environment can increase scalability while simultaneously reducing expenses, and the following details a just a
few of the many benefits that virtualization can bring to your organization:

 Slash your IT expenses;- Utilizing a non-virtualized environment can be inefficient because when you are not consuming the
application on the server, the compute is sitting idle and can't be used for other applications. When you virtualize an environment, that
single physical server transforms into many virtual machines. These virtual machines can have different operating systems and run
different applications while still all being hosted on the single physical server. Through the consolidation of the applications onto
virtualized environments, you’ll be able consume fewer physical customers, helping you spend significantly less money on servers.

 Reduce downtime and enhance resiliency;- When a disaster affects a physical server, someone is responsible for replacing or
fixing it—this could take hours, or even days. With a virtualized environment, it’s easy to provision and deploy, allowing you to
replicate or clone the virtual machine that’s been affected. The recovery process would take mere minutes—as opposed to the hours
it would take to provision and set up a new physical server—significantly enhancing the resiliency of the environment.

 Increase efficiency and productivity;- With fewer servers, your IT teams will be able to spend less time maintaining the
physical hardware. You’ll be able to install, update, and maintain the environment across all the virtual machines on the
server instead of going through the laborious and tedious process of applying the updates server-by-server. Less time
dedicated to maintaining the environment increases your team’s efficiency and productivity.
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Cont…

 Control independence and DevOps;- Since the virtualized environment is segmented into virtual machines, your
developers can quickly spin up a virtual machine without impacting a production environment. This is ideal for
Dev/Test, as the developer can quickly clone the virtual machine and run a test on the environment. For example, if a
new software patch has been released, someone can clone the virtual machine and apply the latest software update,
test the environment, and then pull it into their production application. This increases the speed and agility of an
application.

 Move to be more green-friendly (organizational and environmental) ;- When you are able to cut down on the
number of physical servers you’re using, it’ll lead to a reduction in the amount of power being consumed. This has two
green benefits:

It reduces expenses for the business, and that money can be reinvested elsewhere.

It reduces the carbon footprint of the data center.

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Security impacts of Virtualization
 Denial of Service (DoS);- A successful DoS attack here can lead to a shutdown of the hypervisor. This can lead to the ability to
add a backdoor to allow access to the VMs underneath the hypervisor.

 VM Jumping;- If a security hole in the hypervisor occurs and is found, a user logged into one VM can hop over to another VM
and gain access to it to look at information or acquire it.

 Host Traffic Interception;- Vulnerabilities in the hypervisor can allow for tracking of system calls, paging files, and monitoring of
memory and disk activity.

 Magnified failures;- In the virtual world, depending on the number of virtual machines residing on a physical box, a hardware
failure could impact multiple virtual servers and the applications they host. Failures will have a much larger impact, effecting
multiple operating systems, multiple applications and those little tiny fires will turn into big fires fast.

 The overall effects of virtualization technology depend not just on the technology itself, but also on the environment in
which it is used. Conceptually we therefore split the causes into three groups:

1) the technical capabilities of features and their security effects

2) the selection of features that can be made in practice

3) the management of the selected features in practice

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Conclusion

 In conclusion, Virtualization by itself allows an organization to utilize and effectively use its IT resources. However,
cloud computing takes the use of those resources to another level by delivering access to those components on-
demand as a service, thus reducing complexity for the end user, cost and burden
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Reference

 file:///Users/administrator/Downloads/Security_Implications_of_Virtualization.pdf

 https://www.getfilecloud.com/blog/2013/12/where-virtualization-and-cloud-computing-intertwine/#.YHgnl5Mzac
Y

 https://www.ibm.com/cloud/blog/5-benefits-of-virtualization

 https://www.globalknowledge.com/us-en/resources/resource-library/articles/virtualization-for-newbies-five-type
s-of-virtualization/#gref

 https://searchdisasterrecovery.techtarget.com/definition/virtual-disaster-recovery

 https://resources.infosecinstitute.com/topic/virtualization-security-2/