A lot of online services that are available for commercial use today can be traced back to their developmental stages in virtual machines. They serve amazing purposes that we might not have been aware of, even to the point where we don’t even know how they are being used. The basic premise of a virtual machine is that it’s a simulated computer within a computer. Although this might sound redundant and basic, there are actually real and tangible positive effects these virtual machines have on our lives. Today, we’ll trace them back one by one and show their functions. Moreover, we’ll also explore how beneficial virtual machines are, their drawbacks, comparing VM vs. Docker containers, and so much more.
What are Virtual Machines?
Virtual machines are essentially software that runs within another software or computer, completely simulating the environment of its host without affecting it whenever something happens inside. Virtual machines could act exactly the same as your normal computer, but the sandbox, as they call it, is quarantined and built independently from your other software. Even though they are all housed on the same physical host, each virtual machine operates independently of the others and runs on its own operating system. In addition to running on servers, virtual machines are also found on desktop computers and even embedded platforms. A physical host’s resources, such as CPU time, network bandwidth, and memory, can be shared by a number of virtual machines.
Advantages
Since virtual machines could run their own operating system independently, you could do whatever you want on a computer without necessarily suffering the consequences of bricking it in a software sense. Coding programs, trying out applications, and studying viruses could all be done within a virtual machine. These things could potentially bug and even destroy your computer in the process, but if it’s done in a virtual machine, there’s no risk. For example, you want to test out your application to see if it’ll run smoothly and with good compatibility with a new operating system.
Instead of buying another computer with the new operating system, you could easily run your program within a virtual machine with the operating system of your desire. That’s because virtual machines are not limited to simulating the same OS they have within the hardware.
This can also work the other way around. If you have a laptop handy and you’re not that privy to downloading the latest version of Windows just yet, then you could run the new OS on a virtual machine. Essentially, whatever happens within that virtual machine will be very consistent with what would occur when you actually download the latest OS on your main laptop.
Since virtual machines are simply simulated computers within your already-owned computer, the costs are dramatically less expensive than that of buying a new device altogether. For example, the most commercially used technique for virtualization is in servers. Servers host a lot of data for different types of devices. Because these servers need to communicate with a variety of computers within the same or limited hardware, it is paramount that they are able to synchronize their operating systems with the guest devices. Because of virtual machines, this type of scenario could have a single server having five operating systems. Instead of a storage company building a separate server for each OS, they’d be able to save so much resources.
Disadvantages
Of course, nothing is perfect, and even the magic of virtual machines has its few downsides. For one, running multiple computers within one computer means that they will be sharing the hardware resources. If your desktop doesn’t have enough RAM and storage, then there will be some instability on the VMs. If there is an error with the main computer and the physical device crashes, then every VM within it will be affected as well. Any damage to the host might reflect on the VM, so it’s always nice to keep that in mind.
