Over the last decade, several execution environments have been introduced in the IT field. IT professionals have benefitted significantly by shifting to the execution environment best suited for them. IaaS, Virtualization, and Containerization are some of the significant execution environments available today. This blog will briefly examine Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Virtualization, and Containerization.
A form of cloud computing that gives virtualized computing resources over the internet is called Infrastructure as a service (IaaS). IaaS, SaaS, and PaaS are the three main categories of cloud computing services. IT infrastructure such as storage, server, and networking resources are managed by the cloud provider in the IaaS model and is delivered to the subscriber using virtual machines through the internet. IaaS providers supply a variety of services to accompany the infrastructure components, for example, detailed billing, monitoring, security, load balancing, etc. These are policy-driven services, enabling users to implement greater automation and orchestration. Resources and services can be accessed by IaaS users through a wide area network (WAN) and can also use cloud providers' services to install elements of an app stack. IaaS can be very useful to organizations, potentially making workloads faster, easier, flexible, and cost-effective. Some of the benefits of IaaS are:
Reduced CapEx infrastructure Self-service provisioning Increased security Pay-per-use modelMany IT organizations must deploy multiple servers due to the limitation of x86 servers to keep up with today's high demands. This often results in massive deficiencies and high operating costs. The solution to this is virtualization. Virtualization relies on simulating hardware functionality to create a virtual computer system. This enables organizations to run multiple virtual systems, operating systems, and apps on a single server, resulting in greater efficiency. The virtual computer thus created is often known as a Virtual Machine (VM). A VM is a tightly isolated container with an OS and app inside it. Each VM is completely independent and self-contained. Partitioning, isolation, encapsulation, and hardware independence are some of the key properties of VMs. Virtualization is critical in cloud computing. Users typically share data like apps in the cloud, but with the help of virtualization, users can also share the Infrastructure. Virtualization provides a pool of IT resources so that we can share these resources to get their benefits. Some of the benefits of virtualization are:
Greater IT efficiencies Faster workload deployment Increased security High server availabilityA containerization is a form of OS virtualization, where your apps run in isolated spaces called containers, using the same shared OS. Containerization is considered a natural evolution of virtualization, making it more flexible and granular. Containerization helps organizations modernize legacy apps and create new and scalable cloud-native software. Containerizing an app abstracts the container away from the host OS with limited access to underlying resources. A containerized app has everything it needs to run, including binaries, libraries, and dependencies encapsulated and isolated in a container. Containerized apps can be run over various infrastructures like the cloud or VMs. Developers often use containerization of apps for packaging several individual Microservices for making modern applications due to their high efficiency. In simple terms, in containerization, developers write apps once and then run them everywhere. This gives essential portability in the development process. Some of the benefits of containerization are:
High portability, agility, and efficiency Faster delivery Improved security Easier managementIaaS serves as an executable environment and represents and fills several roles to encapsulate large areas of featured sets. Therefore organizations that look to leverage the power of cloud computing and save some CapEx infrastructure and setup costs often go with IaaS. In an IaaS model, the infrastructure components are hosted by the cloud provider that is traditionally present in an on-premises data center. This includes storage, servers, network resources, and the virtualization and Hypervisor layer. Virtual machines can be created by logging into the IaaS platform; otherwise, an operating system can be installed in each virtual machine, storage buckets can be created, and databases can be deployed.
Organizations that need to serve multiple clients or have employees dealing with sensitive data often prefer virtualization to generate VMs on the go. This enables companies to consolidate computing instances and allow efficient use of resources along with handling disaster recovery. VMs on a single computer enables several OS and apps to run as a physical server. A thin software layer called a Hypervisor decouples the VMs from the host and allocates computing resources to each VM as needed. If a new version of an app is released, and if your system does not support it, then the service provider has to provide the latest version to their cloud users. Virtualization technology can overcome this problem as all the servers and apps required are maintained by third-party people. Secure remote access can be provided using VMs.
Containerization proves beneficial for a company managing a portfolio of apps or IT services. Containers are ideal for streamlining software development as they provide speed, agility, and portability. In containerization, OS is broken down into chunks that can be used more efficiently. An application container offers a way to package apps in a portable and software-defined environment. Because all the applications share one OS kernel when using containerization, you don't have to set up a different OS for each one, which reduces overhead. Numerous containers can be deployed as one or more container clusters in large application deployment. As containers can run consistently across any laptop, on-premises, or on the cloud, they are ideal architecture in scenarios where organizations find themselves in a mix of multiple clouds in combination with their own data center.
Organizations can use IaaS, Virtualization, and Containerization together or in pairs. As they all have their respective peculiarities and advantages, organizations can choose any particular one depending on their needs. This blog gives an overview of IaaS, virtualization, and containerization, their uses, and their benefits.
