CHAPTER 27Using Linux for Cloud Computing
Computer operating systems were originally designed to be installed directly on computer hardware. When it needed memory, storage, processing power, or network interfaces, a computer operating system looked for physical RAM, hard disks, CPUs, and network interface cards. When it needed more of those things than were physically installed, you turned the machine off and physically added them to the computer. Nowadays, virtualizing these items is what makes cloud computing possible.
Virtualization, as is relates to computers, is the act of making computing resources that were originally designed as physical objects to be represented by virtual ones. For example, a virtual operating system (referred to as a virtual machine) doesn't communicate directly with the hardware. Instead, a virtual machine (VM) interacts with a specially configured host computer referred to as a hypervisor. So, instead of being able to run one operating system on a physical computer, you could potentially run dozens or even hundreds of VMs on a single physical computer.
The advantages gained from running VMs are massive. Not only can you have multiple operating systems running on the same computer, but those systems can be different ones—Linux, BSD, Windows, or any other system made to run on the computer's hardware. If you ...
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