Welcome back to Tech 101 with Financial Guardians. In today’s video, we’ll be covering virtual machines. So what is a virtual machine? Depending on your experience with computers, a virtual machine may seem obvious in its definition.
A virtual machine is a software-based emulation of a physical computer, a computer ran within a computer, or sometimes a server, laptop, or similar device. Virtual machines can even run their own virtual machines, like a box inside of a box inside of a box. Technically, a virtual machine is the result of virtualization, a process where the virtual machine uses the same CPU architecture as your PC.
Think of architecture as language. Much easier to use the same language to write instructions, so that both your PC and virtual machine can follow them easily. This ease translates to faster speeds, easier setup, but is restricted to being in the same language only, which also generally means the same operating system, with some exceptions.
In PC terms, this means if you run a VM on Windows, only systems written in the same architecture of Windows can be virtualized. So these are things like Linux or Windows 98, but not Mac OS or Android, for example. The other option is emulation.
Colloquially, these can both be summarized as virtual machines. They both aim to run an operating system in an application, but there is a distinct difference. Emulation allows you to run a completely different architecture, at the cost of performance and simplicity.
This is how someone can run a phone on a PC, for example, or a Nintendo Wii on a PC, or dare I say, Windows on a MacBook. It emulates it, pretends, translates this language. So what are the uses? Uses for virtual machines are plentiful.
In the workspace, a VM can provide an extra layer of protection, as it’s another device to crack. Multiple virtual machines can also be run off of the same computer or hardware, allowing multiple workstations to be created out of a single one. They can operate as test environments, with more destructive or perhaps experimental software contained in this safe box, or perhaps even malware that needs to be studied and documented.
You can easily connect and disconnect multiple facets of computing, such as internet, storage, OS, disks, and more, from the virtual machine. It also serves as a great way to access older systems, perhaps a software that’s only available in Windows XP, for example, due to discontinuation, without the security risks associated with un-updated operating systems. For casual use, emulation has become widely used by users in the video game industry.
Despite its questionable legality, it remains the only way to access certain titles, and a great way to enjoy older video games, and their systems in their entirety, with just a personal computer. This shows just how malleable a virtual machine and emulation really can be, and how much you can apply it to certain scenarios. So you may be thinking this is all some kind of mystical, magical thing.
But is there any true drawbacks? Well, they’re not magic, they have their limitations. Mainly, they’re quite power-hungry, you need a powerful enough machine to run itself and a virtual machine, especially if you’re going to be splitting the hardware into multiple virtual machines. They aren’t quite as fast as running a machine by itself, especially if it’s being emulated.
3D rendering also struggles due to the lack of power, so any kind of AutoCAD software or anything similar generally isn’t advisable to be used on a virtual machine, unless it is using almost all of the hardware. The setup of a VM can be quite tough as well. For those who aren’t familiar with the technology, some forms of virtual machine systems can be quite tough to set up.
Emulation and basic virtual machines, though, are generally quite easy to use. So looking to the future, it’s important to note virtual machines play a crucial role in the cloud area that we’re currently in. Virtualization, native to the cloud, is already offered by many companies and may even be a part of your workflow right now.
Software as a service, infrastructure as a service, these things all use virtual machines on clouds, on the hardware that you connect to from your less powerful hardware. The ability to create specific environments and sandboxes, tailoring them to your needs, is a great asset for those who find themselves requiring that extra bit of security, or maybe need that little bit of an experimental edge for their software.
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