Summary

This chapter presented the concepts underlying processor virtualization and explained the many benefits to individual users and large organizations that derive from the effective use of virtualization. We examined the principal virtualization techniques and the open source and commercial tools that implement them.

We also saw the benefits of virtualization in the deployment of real-world software applications in cloud environments.

You should now understand the technology and benefits associated with processor virtualization and how modern processor ISAs support virtualization at the instruction set level. We learned about several open source and commercial tools providing virtualization capabilities. You should now understand how virtualization can be used to build and deploy scalable applications in cloud computing environments.

In the next chapter, we will look at the architecture of some specific application categories, including mobile devices, personal computers...