Virtualisation

One of the benefits of clouds is their relative ease of use. When a user needs extra computing services they simply pick the right cloud for their needs, pay for what they’ve used and discard it when they’re done.

However it’s not always that easy.

Clouds often employ a technique called ‘virtualisation’ to give users more control when using the cloud. Virtualisation allows users to create their own ‘virtual computer’, with specified applications, software and operating machines. For example we could set up a Windows-based virtual machine but run it inside a Mac.

Virtualisation means that users don't need to worry about what software is being run where. This is especially important with clouds, as they won’t often know on which machines their data or work will be running. However, on the down side, setting up virtual machines is quite difficult to do!