Virtualization is a fundamental technology underlying most modern computer systems and networks, yet little understood by many in industry. Virtualization products are now being applied at the network level, in storage infrastructure, and for virtualized operating systems. They are helping to meet critical IT goals such as cost reduction, productivity, scalability, and cloud computing. This course builds the foundation skills that IT and engineering professionals need to make use of this important technology.

The course covers virtualization at various levels. For computer systems, it includes hardware virtualization and support for Hypervisors. For network virtualization, it addresses virtual LANs, virtual SANs, WAN acceleration, network access control, server load balancing and firewall virtualization. In the area of storage virtualization, discussions cover basic concepts and deployment at the device block level, file system level, and more. Licensing issues arising from virtualization are also covered. You will learn the basic concepts of virtualization and how it is applied to CPUs and operating systems, networks, and storage systems.

Learning Outcomes
At the conclusion of the course, you should be able to

• Describe general virtualization concepts and their applications to various areas of computing
• Discuss the working principles of several commercial virtualization products in the area of storage, networking, and licensing
• Explain the principles of software and hardware hypervisors
• Explain how virtualization has been applied to networking and the storage fields
• Explain how virtualization affects other areas like licensing, backups, and disaster recovery
• Identify the advantages and disadvantages of virtualization at various levels and in different areas

Topics Include

• History of virtualization
• Software virtualization
• Hardware virtualization: Hypervisors and CPU support for hypervisors
• Network virtualization: Load balancing, WAN acceleration, Firewalls, Network access control
• Storage virtualization: File system level, Data block level
• Other topics of interest: Licensing and virtualization, Data de-duplication and backups, Disaster recovery

Skills Needed:

A basic understanding of storage systems and networking concepts.