Hypervisors

Hypervisors, also known as virtual machine monitors (VMMs), are software or hardware solutions that create and manage virtual machines (VMs). They allow multiple operating systems to run concurrently on a single physical host machine, enabling resource sharing, efficient utilization of hardware, and improved IT infrastructure flexibility. They abstract the physical hardware, presenting a virtualized environment to the operating systems, thus allowing each guest OS to function independently. They play a crucial role in virtualization and cloud computing, as they are a key enabler of server consolidation and resource optimization, leading to cost savings and enhanced agility.

Hypervisors meaning with examples

• Organizations leverage hypervisors, like VMware vSphere or Microsoft Hyper-V, to run various applications on virtualized servers. This means you could have a web server, a database server, and an application server all running on the same physical hardware, each isolated in its own VM. This leads to reduced hardware costs and simplified administration through centralized management and automated deployments.
• Cloud service providers utilize hypervisors extensively to provision virtual machines to their clients. This allows for easy scaling of resources, enabling users to quickly deploy and manage virtual servers and applications, paying only for the resources they consume. Different hypervisors are capable of running different types of virtual machines and are often chosen based on the needs of their user base.
• In a DevOps environment, hypervisors are crucial for creating isolated environments for software development and testing. Developers can use VMs to test their code against various operating systems and configurations, allowing them to build, test, and deploy applications quickly. This is an important part of continuous integration and continuous delivery pipelines, leading to faster release cycles.
• Research and development teams often use hypervisors to experiment with new operating systems and software configurations. They can create and destroy VMs as needed, quickly setting up environments to explore complex applications or configurations. Their ability to isolate different software allows for safer testing of experimental code without affecting the underlying host system.