Virtualization: What is it and do I need it?
There is a lot of talk about Virtual Machines now but the reality is that it's not for everyone.
TLDR: Do you play online or graphic intensive games? Don't use a VM.
Do you do heavy video editing or work? Don't use a VM.
Do you browse on the web ALOT? It might be a good idea to use a VM.
Do you watch a lot of porn? It might be a good idea to use a VM.
Now, for a more in depth look at when and why to virtualize a computer.
Let's say you are heavily into gaming, but you want to keep your work stuff separate from your gaming stuff. So on your Windows computer you create a Virtual Machine which is basically a computer within the computer. Microsoft does this through a special service called Hyper-V which is just a fancy name for software based hardware. There are other virtual machine vendors out there like VMware, Virtual Box, Parallels.
What a virtual machine does is create a virtual physical computer which you can then install a new operating system and software on that is completely independent from the computer the virtual machine lives on. Even though this machine is "on" the desktop you use for gaming it is isolated from your system. At the time of writing of this article, no one has found a way to break the VM bubble to access a host OS. This is why businesses heavily leverage virtualization.
I've seen Network and System engineers design entire virtual networks using VM's on one machine. I've even done this.
Now, some things to be aware of with VM's. They do not provide powerful graphics!
There is a big difference between photo shop and excel. If you need Graphics intensive applications, Video editing, gaming, even advanced picture editing, 3d modeling, you do not want to do that on a virtual machine unless it is specifically designed for it. (This would be in a large multi user environment.) For home users you would want to use a VM for web browsing.
Now if your virtual machine gets infected and you have software that supports an automated backup (or snapshot) schedule of the VM, then you can quickly restore to a point before the infection and move on with your day. (Another reason businesses heavily leverage virtualization.)
Most home workstations can handle a lightweight VM nowadays but they do use system resources so if you keep a VM running it can slow down the hosting OS.
Security admins also use VM's to create sandbox's where infected files can be safely analyzed away from other systems. This is somewhat dangerous work and should only be undertaken by IT Security professionals.
If you have specific questions or have topics you want to know more about, please ask.
Thank you for reading.
Have a question or comment? Please ask or leave feedback below. I'm here to help you.
Please follow and share this blog for more posts like this.
TLDR: Do you play online or graphic intensive games? Don't use a VM.
Do you do heavy video editing or work? Don't use a VM.
Do you browse on the web ALOT? It might be a good idea to use a VM.
Do you watch a lot of porn? It might be a good idea to use a VM.
Now, for a more in depth look at when and why to virtualize a computer.
Let's say you are heavily into gaming, but you want to keep your work stuff separate from your gaming stuff. So on your Windows computer you create a Virtual Machine which is basically a computer within the computer. Microsoft does this through a special service called Hyper-V which is just a fancy name for software based hardware. There are other virtual machine vendors out there like VMware, Virtual Box, Parallels.
What a virtual machine does is create a virtual physical computer which you can then install a new operating system and software on that is completely independent from the computer the virtual machine lives on. Even though this machine is "on" the desktop you use for gaming it is isolated from your system. At the time of writing of this article, no one has found a way to break the VM bubble to access a host OS. This is why businesses heavily leverage virtualization.
I've seen Network and System engineers design entire virtual networks using VM's on one machine. I've even done this.
Now, some things to be aware of with VM's. They do not provide powerful graphics!
There is a big difference between photo shop and excel. If you need Graphics intensive applications, Video editing, gaming, even advanced picture editing, 3d modeling, you do not want to do that on a virtual machine unless it is specifically designed for it. (This would be in a large multi user environment.) For home users you would want to use a VM for web browsing.
Now if your virtual machine gets infected and you have software that supports an automated backup (or snapshot) schedule of the VM, then you can quickly restore to a point before the infection and move on with your day. (Another reason businesses heavily leverage virtualization.)
Most home workstations can handle a lightweight VM nowadays but they do use system resources so if you keep a VM running it can slow down the hosting OS.
Security admins also use VM's to create sandbox's where infected files can be safely analyzed away from other systems. This is somewhat dangerous work and should only be undertaken by IT Security professionals.
If you have specific questions or have topics you want to know more about, please ask.
Thank you for reading.
Have a question or comment? Please ask or leave feedback below. I'm here to help you.
Please follow and share this blog for more posts like this.
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