ISSC342 Different Operating System Installs in A Virtual Environment Paper
ISSC342 Different Operating System Installs in A Virtual Environment Paper
Hello. I have two respond to the below two students forum post with a minimum of 150 words for each post. Also below in bold is the question the students are responding to.
1) Discuss three situations for uses of different operating system installs in a virtual environment while at the same time securing the operating system installation.
For example, think about why a system administrator would install several different versions of Microsoft Windows VM’s? Or maybe a developer installing different distributions of Linux? Think about the different IT departments an organization may have and what can be done to save time, money and resources when they utilize virtual machines.
Student one:
1) Discuss three situations for uses of different operating system installs in a virtual environment
while at the same time securing the operating system installation.
Operating systems work as the translator for our computers. “An Operating System (OS) is a collection
of software that manages computer hardware and provides services for programs. Specifically, it hides
hardware complexity, manages computational resources, and provides isolation and protection. Most importantly, it directly has privilege access to the underlying hardware. (Le) Virtualization is the fundamental technology that powers cloud computing. This software separates compute environments from physical infrastructures, so you can run multiple operating systems and applications simultaneously on the same machine.(Rivera)
There are many advantages to using virtualization. Using this allows testing for software developers applications. It always allows them to test multiple applications without using multiple computers. If a user is using an application that crashes while using virtualization, that then allows then to restart their computer without any flaws or damages. An example of using virtualization is if you are using a mac and there is an application that is exclusive on another pc it will allow you to use that application without having multiple computers open.
“One of the biggest benefits of virtualization is sever consolidation. Instead of maintaining multiple servers that each have a different function, server virtualization allows you to split the resources of a single server for
multiple purposes.” (Rivera) Another benefit for using virtualization is security. This allows users to widen their resources and can then stop using multiple physical systems. With less physical system this can strengthen security for the user. I’m hoping this explained well for the first forum. I’m very naïve to Cybersecurity as I recently changed my degree from Natural Science.
Rivera, Andreas. (July 2018) “Virtualization vs. Cloud Computing: What’s the Difference?”
https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/5791-virtualizat…
Le, James (Jan 2018) “How Operating Systems Work: 10 Concepts
you Should Know as a Developer” https://medium.com/cracking-the-data-science-inter…
-Cait
Student two:
A virtual machine, also known as VM, is a application (or operating system) that create an environment that simulates a completely separate computer. This means that anything and everything that happens within the virtual machine, is separate from the OS that is running on the actual computer. (Notenboom, n.d.)
There are three main situations in which a user would want to use a virtual machine. The most common use of a virtual machine is for it to be used as a test environment. Installing a virtual machine allows the user to use the same physical device for both the test environment and the production environment. This is beneficial because different applications, programs, etc can be ran on the virtual machine and there is no concern about the programs potentially affecting the physical device as the VM is “sandboxed” from the system. (Virtual, 2017) In fact, security researchers tend to utilize VMs in order to test malware without risk to the hardware and actual OS on the device. (Pearson, n.d.)
Additionally, administrators create many virtual environments on physical servers. This reduces costs, as well as maximizing resources. However, when a server is vitalized, other benefits that offer security are the fact that it becomes much easier for an administrator to detect malicious viruses or other elements while still being able to protect sever, VMs and network because they can identify and isolate. (Pal, 2015)
Another reason why VMs could be used, would be in order to run software that isn’t supported by the operating system. In this Scenario a VM would could be loaded on a newer device, and the company could still use programs that the newer operating systems/devices no longer support. This mitigate many potential security risks with leaving outdated devices on a network. (Virtual, 2017)
Works Cited:
Notenboom, L. A. (n.d.). What’s the difference between a sandbox and a virtual machine? Retrieved from http://ask-leo.com/whats_the_difference_between_a_…
Pal, K. (2015, April 29). 10 Ways Virtualization Can Improve Security. Retrieved from https://www.techopedia.com/2/31007/trends/virtuali…
Pearson IT Certification. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.pearsonitcertification.com/articles/art…
Virtual machines: Our complete guide to everything you need to know. (2017, September 15). Retrieved from http://techgenix.com/virtual-machines/
-Lindsi
