You have probably heard of VMware quite often. But what exactly is VMware? VMware is a cloud computing and virtualization company founded in 1998. VMware provides products that virtualize hardware such as servers, storage, and networks. This virtualization creates abstraction layers on top of physical hardware, allowing components such as processors, memory, storage space, and others to be divided into multiple virtual computers known as virtual machines (VMs).
Each virtual machine runs its own operating system and behaves like an independent computer, even though it still relies on the same physical hardware as the host machine.
As you can imagine, virtualization enables more efficient use of computer hardware and helps increase return on investment (ROI). It also allows cloud computing service providers—both private and public cloud—to serve more users using the hardware they already own.
Benefits Offered
By using VMware products and services for cloud computing infrastructure, you can gain many benefits. Below are some of the key advantages.
1. Efficient Allocation of IT Resources
VMware enables better utilization of physical computing resources. Administrators generally avoid running multiple applications on a single server because if one application crashes, it can destabilize the operating system and affect other running applications.
One way to reduce this risk is by running each application on its own operating system and virtual server. However, this approach is inefficient because each operating system can consume up to 30% of CPU resources. With VMware, you can run multiple applications—each with its own operating system—on the same server, allowing you to optimize CPU usage more effectively.
2. Energy and Space Efficiency
VMware allows you to run multiple applications using fewer physical servers. Fewer physical servers require less space in your data center, resulting in better energy efficiency and reduced space requirements.
3. Best-in-Class Support
VMware is one of the leading and most popular virtualization providers, with more than 500,000 users worldwide. It also offers a vast customer support network of over 75,000 partners, along with a wide range of additional services and products.
Virtualization in VMware
After understanding the definition and benefits, here are the main VMware virtualization components and how they work.
1. VMware Hypervisor
VMware virtualizes physical computers using a hypervisor. A hypervisor is a thin software layer that interacts directly with physical host resources and allocates those resources to guest operating systems. Guest operating systems request resources from the hypervisor.
The hypervisor isolates each guest operating system so they can run independently without interfering with one another. If one guest OS crashes, becomes unstable, or is infected by malware, it will not affect the performance of other virtual machines.
2. VMware ESXi
VMware ESXi is a data center hypervisor focused on type 1 or “bare-metal” virtualization, replacing the traditional host operating system that interacts with physical hardware components. ESXi replaced ESX and features a more streamlined hypervisor architecture. As a result, ESX is no longer produced.
VMware Comparison with Other Hypervisors
VMware vs Hyper-V
Microsoft Hyper-V is a hypervisor product that allows multiple operating systems to run on the same server. Like ESXi, Hyper-V is a type 1 hypervisor that interacts directly with physical computing and memory resources. When enabled, Hyper-V is installed alongside the Windows operating system, allowing Windows to access the underlying hardware directly.
VMware vs Citrix
Citrix offers application and desktop virtualization and has a long history in desktop integration. Its primary hypervisor, Citrix Hypervisor (formerly XenServer), competes with VMware vSphere. Citrix’s desktop and application virtualization products also compete with VMware Horizon.
VMware vs KVM
Both ESXi and KVM are hypervisors, but KVM is built into the Linux kernel. One of KVM’s main advantages over ESXi is that it is open source, making its codebase transparent. However, like most open-source projects, it often requires additional effort to manage. Organizations can also opt for Red Hat Virtualization for enterprise support.
How to Install VMware Tools
One advantage of running a secondary operating system on your computer is the ability to exchange data between operating systems. This is where VMware Tools plays a crucial role. It is an essential component in VMware Workstation environments and enables guest operating systems running on a type 2 hypervisor to integrate more effectively with the host operating system.
Installing VMware Tools improves graphics performance and enables folder sharing between the guest and host operating systems. It also supports drag-and-drop and copy-paste functionality between the two systems.
To install VMware Tools, click VM and select Install VMware Tools from the VMware Workstation menu. VMware Workstation will mount a virtual CD-ROM on the guest operating system containing the VMware Tools installer. You can then access the CD-ROM and run the installer.
Types of VMware Hypervisors
Type 2 VMware hypervisors compete with various products available in the market. Below are some comparisons.
VMware vs VirtualBox
VirtualBox is a type 2 hypervisor developed by Innotek. VirtualBox is a free, open-source product that allows installation and usage on multiple operating systems, even if they are already installed on your laptop or computer. Each product has its own strengths and weaknesses. VMware products offer superior 3D graphics performance, while VirtualBox supports a wider variety of virtual disk image formats.
VMware vs Parallels
Parallels is a type 2 hypervisor designed specifically to run guest operating systems on macOS platforms and competes with VMware Fusion. Parallels is available through a one-time purchase or a subscription-based model.
Using VMware in either public cloud or private cloud environments from Indonesian Cloud can be a powerful solution for your business. In addition to providing elastic infrastructure for AI/ML applications through hardware accelerators such as GPUs, you can also deploy data- and memory-intensive applications with real-time analytics.
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