How is Network Virtualization Helpful in the Modern World?

In this modern world, people use computers a lot more than they used earlier. Digitalization has become very common in almost all organizations so they require many files, programs, and a lot of data to be stored on computers. This leads to the requirement for different types of network resources. This is where network virtualization can help us.

If there are many types of programs that should be run simultaneously on a single system or there are different requirements for different programs to be run on the system, it becomes a problem to run them at the same time on a single system. Moreover, the storage capacity, hardware requirement, and cost also will be more as the data that needs to be stored increases. Therefore, cloud computing employs virtualization as its core functional block to overcome these issues.

What is Virtualization?

Virtualization is a technique that is introduced to take care of running multiple programs on a single system without spending much money and infrastructure. In the field of computers, it is a process of creating a virtual representation of anything like servers, networks, cloud storage, etc. This process of virtualization not only helps organizations to work on many applications by using a single machine but also helps them to reduce the overall cost and the space required to run many machines. When there is a need to run multiple networks on a single machine without increasing the available resources, network virtualization can be used effectively to achieve the purpose.

Introduction to Network Virtualization

Network virtualization allows multiple programs or applications to run on a virtual network simultaneously as if they are run on a physical network by virtualizing the network. It offers the same services as we get on a physical network. We can install multiple operating systems on the networks created by virtualization as needed. In network virtualization, switches, routers, servers, etc are created virtually so that a network can function as a physical network.

How can be Network Virtualization helpful?

There are several ways in which network virtualization can benefit us. Network virtualization is also an integral part of cloud computing as it helps cloud providers to offer various network services to consumers. Some of the benefits of network virtualization are listed below:

Reduces hardware costs

Hardware costs can be reduced to a great extent. If there is a need to run many applications online, we need to have different systems that increase our expenditure. By using the network virtualization technique, we can reduce the cost incurred on purchasing and maintaining physical systems or infrastructure.

Saves Energy

A lot of energy (electricity, internet connections, etc.) costs can be saved. If we use multiple systems, a lot of money goes into various forms of energy consumption like electricity & internet connections. All that can be avoided by having a virtual network. Saving on energy consumption can help organizations invest more money in essential business operations, thereby improving their business success.

Offers Great Recoverability

Virtual networks offer great recoverability. The data lost as a result of any hardware issues can be retrieved within a few minutes if the virtualization concept is used. When there is some issue with the hardware of a server, it takes a lot of time and effort to bring it back live. We can save all the efforts if we incorporate virtual networks as data recovery is easier and takes less time than it is on physical networks.

Better Scalability

Network virtualization provides a great deal of scalability. We can scale network resources as per our requirements. Scaling here means increasing & decreasing the capability of networks to handle operations. With network virtualization, we can easily cater to our needs of having fewer or more network resources for meeting traffic and operational requirements.

Enhances Network Performance and Bandwidth

Network virtualization helps organizations to improve their network performance by taking care of network traffic in different scenarios. It is equally helpful in all sorts of scenarios for addressing bandwidth requirements. Bandwidth and network performance are affected when there is a mismatch of the available resources and the ability of the network to handle network traffic and operations. By scaling up/down the resources to meet the situational demands, bandwidth efficiency, and network performance are optimized.

Centralized Network Configuration Control and Management

Organizations can centralize all network configurations and manage them easily through network virtualization. It allows complete control over the existing network resources. They can easily modify and control configuration settings to meet their requirements.

Where is Network Virtualization used?

Network virtualization finds its use cases in various technologies in the present world. Apart from cloud computing, organizations widely use network virtualization in Local Area Networks (known as VLAN), data centers for Software-defined network functions, and Wide Area Networks (known as Software-defined WANs or SD-WANs).

Is Network Virtualization Vulnerable?

As network virtualization is becoming very prominent and many companies are implementing it on a large scale, hackers are also finding ways to breach the security of virtual networks to carry out their attacks. One of the most prominent attacks includes Hypervisor-based attacks.

Hypervisor-based attacks

A hypervisor is a software layer that isolates the virtual machines from the host machine so it is also called a virtual machine monitor. In a hypervisor-based attack, attackers find the vulnerabilities of programs that allow multiple operating systems to share one hardware.

Once they find them, they execute their attack to compromise the hypervisor layer. After doing that, it becomes easy for them to hack all the virtual machines or networks running on the host machine.

Some hypervisor-based attacks are listed below:

VM escape: There may be some vulnerabilities in the operating systems of virtual machines that allow hackers to attack and insert some malicious programs. Generally, there is strong isolation between virtual machines and the host machine but hacking can be done if attacks can find the vulnerabilities of the virtual operating systems. After the insertion of a malicious program, the isolation between them is broken which allows the hacker to execute attacks. It is a form of hyper-visor attack as the hypervisor layer is involved in it.

VM sprawl: When a large number of VMs are created on one hardware without proper management (such that all the VMs created have useful resources like memory, network channel, etc), the resources cannot be assigned to other VMs so they are effectively lost.

Hyperjacking: In this attack, a hacker takes control of the hypervisor layer and the target is the host machine. If it is controlled by the hacker, he/she can control all the VMs available on the system.

Conclusion

Network virtualization technology is highly relevant in the modern days as it empowers us to maximize network performance even by using limited physical resources. Cloud computing is the best use case that shows how powerful network virtualization is.

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