Week 7

This week, what caught my attention was virtualization. Previously, I’ve always assumed that cloud computing and virtualization were the same thing. Apparently, though, it isn’t. Virtualization falls under the cloud computing umbrella. With virtualization, you are separating the operating system from the hardware. With cloud computing, you are separating the application from the hardware. When installing an operating system, it used to be installed directly onto a server. With virtualization, you get a layer where you can install an instance of an operating system. That layer is called a hypervisor. Which I had never heard of. This is important because you can now move operating systems easily because the operating system is connected to the hypervisor, not the hardware itself. Pretty cool.