Basics of Hardware Virtualization

Parallels Cloud Server is based on the concept of hardware virtualization . Hardware virtualization has a base layer—a hypervisor. This layer is loaded directly on the bare server and acts as an intermediary between the server hardware and virtual machines. To allocate hardware and resources to virtual machines, Parallels Cloud Server virtualizes all hardware on the server. Once virtualized, hardware and resources can be easily assigned to virtual machines. Based on the virtual hardware, a virtual machine runs its own complete copies of an operating system and applications.

The following diagram shows the basic architecture of hardware virtualization.

Like OS virtualization, hardware virtualization also provides many benefits the main of which are listed below:

• Create multiple virtual machines with different operating systems on a single physical computer.
• Run several guest operating systems and their applications simultaneously on a single physical computer without rebooting.
• Consolidate and virtualize the computing environment, reduce hardware costs, lower operating expenses, and increase productivity.
• Use open APIs and SDK to extend management integration with in-house and third-party applications.