Big Data For Dummies

Chapter 5

Virtualization and How It Supports Distributed Computing

In This Chapter

Defining virtualization

Understanding the hypervisor

Exploring abstraction and virtualization

Implementing virtualization to work with big data

Virtualization is a foundational technology applicable to the implementation of both cloud computing and big data. It provides the basis for many of the platform attributes required to access, store, analyze, and manage the distributed computing components in big data environments. Virtualization — the process of using computer resources to imitate other resources — is valued for its capability to increase IT resource utilization, efficiency, and scalability. One primary application of virtualization is server consolidation, which helps organizations increase the utilization of physical servers and potentially save on infrastructure costs. However, you find many benefits to virtualization. Companies that initially focused solely on server virtualization are now recognizing that it can be applied across the entire IT infrastructure, including software, storage, ...