What is a virtualization platform?
A virtualization platform is a solution for managing virtual machines (VMs), enabling an IT organization to support isolated computing environments that share a pool of hardware resources.
Organizations use VMs for a variety of reasons, including to efficiently manage many different kinds of computing environments, to support older operating systems and software, and to run test environments. A virtualization platform brings together all the technologies needed to support and manage large numbers of VMs.
VM platforms continue to evolve, prompting some enterprises to explore new virtualization providers. A clear understanding of virtualization concepts can help inform these choices.
Important virtualization concepts and choices
Virtualization platforms take different approaches to the technologies that make VMs possible. Here are some concepts to keep in mind when comparing platforms.
Type 1 or type 2 hypervisors
A hypervisor is software that pools computing resources—like processing, memory, and storage—and reallocates them among VMs. This is the technology that enables users to create and run multiple VMs on a single physical machine. Hypervisors fall into 2 categories.
Type 1 hypervisors run directly on the host’s hardware, and are sometimes called native or bare metal hypervisors. A type 1 hypervisor assumes the role of a host operating system (OS), scheduling and managing resources for each VM. This type of hypervisor is well suited for enterprise data center or server-based environments. Popular type 1 hypervisors include KVM (the open source foundation for Red Hat’s virtualization platforms), Microsoft Hyper-V, and VMware vSphere.
Type 2 hypervisors run as a software layer on top of a conventional OS. The host OS manages resources for the hypervisor like any other application running on the OS. Type 2 hypervisors are usually best for individuals who want to run multiple operating systems on a personal workstation. Common examples of type 2 hypervisors include VMware Workstation and Oracle VirtualBox.
Open source or proprietary technology
Open source software, such as the KVM virtualization technology built into Linux® and the Kubernetes-based KubeVirt project, rely on community contributions and open standards.
One benefit to open source software, besides its transparency, is cross-platform compatibility. Open standards and open application programming interfaces (APIs) lead to flexible integration, making it possible to run virtual environments across different datacenter and cloud infrastructures.
Conversely, proprietary technology can make it challenging to integrate with other technologies and harder to switch vendors.
Container and cloud compatibility
Modern IT organizations need to support both VMs and containers. Containers group together just what’s needed to run a single application or service and tend to be smaller than VMs, making them lightweight and portable. Containers and VMs may need to operate seamlessly across hybrid and multicloud environments.
Faced with all this complexity, IT organizations seek to simplify their application development and deployment pipelines. A platform should support both containers and VMs and help teams use computing resources efficiently, and ensure applications and services roll out in an orderly, consistent way.
Traditional virtualization platforms can be separate from container platforms. Sometimes they are meant to work in a single environment, rather than across multiple cloud environments.
More modern virtualization platforms act as components of unified platforms that work across different infrastructure, including on premise and cloud environments. This approach can streamline deployment, management and monitoring of both VMs and containers. A unified platform can eliminate duplicate work and improve flexibility, making it easier to adapt to changes.
Red Hat resources
What to look for in a virtualization platform
Equipped with an understanding of virtualization concepts, you’ll want to list your requirements for a virtualization platform and evaluate the benefits and drawbacks of different choices in the marketplace. Your research should include important qualities like costs and support levels, as well as features specific to virtualization platforms. Here are a few such features to look for.
Ease of migration
When moving from one virtualization platform to another, administrators will seek to avoid disruptions, incompatibilities, and degraded performance. Virtualization platforms can have different deployment and management processes, and different tooling, especially across different cloud providers.
Preparation can help avoid many migration pitfalls. Using tested and effective toolkits to preemptively validate VM compatibility and move multiple VMs at once can help migrations go quickly and smoothly.
Automation
At enterprise scale, with hundreds or thousands of VMs, automation becomes a necessity. Migrating and managing VMs can be repetitive, time-consuming work without an automation system. Automation tools that follow infrastructure as code (IaC) and configuration as code (CaC) methodologies can take over and replace manual processes. Automation helps out beyond just migration and deployments. Automated workflows can inventory existing VMs, apply patches, manage configurations, and more.
Management capabilities
VM administrators and site reliability engineers might oversee deployments that span multiple data centers, private clouds, and public clouds. They need tools and capabilities to support, manage, and monitor VMs across these environments.
A virtualization platform should provide a single console with built-in security policies and full visibility and control of VMs. This end-to-end visibility and control helps your teams deliver new applications and services that comply with policies and regulations.
Security and stability
VM administrators have to protect systems from unauthorized access and service disruptions. A virtualization platform should make it possible to apply security policies, isolation technologies, and least privileges principles.
In platforms that combine VMs with container management, Kubernetes security standards can help ensure virtual machines run without root privileges, complying with industry best practices and mitigating risks.
Partner ecosystem
Migrating to a new virtualization platform shouldn’t require you to walk away from valued vendor relationships or integrations. A platform should maintain relationships with partners who have deep expertise in the virtualization technologies you choose. Specifically for virtualization platforms, you should look for a strong network of partners who can provide storage and network virtualization, and backup and disaster recovery. Partnerships with major hardware providers and IT services providers may also be essential to the success of your VM program.
Integration with development pipelines
IT organizations that integrate VMs into their development and deployment pipelines can see new features delivered quickly and consistently. Virtual environments can be standard, isolated, and reproduced for coding, testing, and debugging.
A virtualization platform should integrate seamlessly with continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines to support isolated environments for each stage of application development and deployment.
Why choose Red Hat for virtualization?
Red Hat’s trusted products and partner ecosystem come together in 1 comprehensive virtualization solution. Migrate your virtual machines now to Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization, a modern application platform–based on the open source projects KVM and KubeVirt–that can run virtual machines and containers side by side. The included migration toolkit for virtualization provides the tools you need to start your migration in a few simple steps. Use automation to accelerate delivery with Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform–from migration at scale to Day 2 operations and remediation. Monitor the security and performance of your VMs from a single console with Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes.
Red Hat collaborates with software and hardware partners across the virtualization ecosystem, including integrations for storage, backup and disaster recovery, and networking. Red Hat virtualization partners offer storage and networking solutions that integrate with Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization through the Kubernetes-native Container Storage Interface (CSI) and Container Networking Interface (CNI). Backup and disaster recovery partners offer protection for your VM workloads and provide business continuity. Additionally, Red Hat’s close collaboration with all major hardware providers means you can choose from a wide range of trusted systems for your virtualization platform.
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