The Cloud Virtualization Market in 2022

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Virtualization in cloud computing allows the provider to collect the physical instances of a resource and share them among various users. The separation is based on demand, as the physical resources are assigned and accessed based on traffic.

Cloud virtualization allows clients to access the combined resources over an internet connection in a variety of offerings, including infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), platform-as-a-service (PaaS), and software-as-a-service (SaaS).

See below to learn all about the global cloud virtualization market:

See examples of How Virtualization is Used by Nasdaq, Bowmicro, Nilkamal, Isala, University of Pisa, and AeC: Case Studies.

Cloud virtualization market

The virtualization market for cloud services was estimated at $38 billion in 2020. It’s expected to maintain a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 25% over the forecast period from 2020 to 2026, reaching $149 billion by the end of it.

Regionally, the cloud virtualization market is segmented as follows:

  • The U.S. market was estimated at $17 billion in 2021, with a 40% share
  • The Chinese market is forecast for a CAGR of 27% over the analysis period, reaching $16 billion by 2026
  • Japan and Canada are forecast to grow at a CAGR of 19% and 24.% over the forecasting period
  • Within Europe, Germany is projected to maintain one of the highest CAGRs at 21%

See all about the Storage Virtualization Market.

Cloud virtualization features

While virtualization is a technology that can be used to pool together a variety of hardware resource types, cloud computing is primarily built on the concept of virtualization in its deployment.

Cloud virtualization can be recognized through its set of characteristics, such as:

Resource allocation

Cloud virtualization enables users to redistribute the resource of the virtual environment on the cloud. As a remotely accessible virtual machine (VM), the allocation includes some or all the hardware resources, such as vCPU, storage, memory, and capacity, at varying degrees. The resource distribution relies on the service agreement, allowing the provider to restrict or downscale a user’s consumption levels.

Privacy and security

Despite sharing the same pool of hardware resources, different users are guaranteed security and privacy from typical cyber threats and any violation from other customers of the virtual cloud. In some instances, cloud virtualization can boost environment security by reducing the number of hardware used, allowing the concentration of security efforts on the pooled resources.

Continuous uptime

Unlike single-server cloud, virtualized clouds can guarantee a low percentage of downtime for customers. The resources pooled split the traffic and processing load automatically, ensuring stable performance and low chances of unplanned downtime. Users won’t feel the shift from one hardware resource to the next in case of an equipment breakdown.

Resource aggregation

Cloud virtualization combines the memory and resource powers of multiple, smaller machines into a single, more powerful VM that can be accessed as a cloud service. The homogeneous group of servers and computers becomes a single resource rather than a cluster with multiple nodes.

Environment isolation

Cloud virtualization enables the service provider to offer a variety of different processing environments and platforms, without needing to invest in additional hardware. Consisting of VMs, guest users can use their virtual cloud environment in complete isolation from other users. This feature also plays a role in the cloud’s security, protecting users’ sensitive information and denying outside parties unauthorized access, including if they’re on the same cloud resource.

Overall, cloud computing services use virtualization technology to better manage resources according to demand and availability. By separating the services from the infrastructure hardware, customers are able to use only the parts of the resource they need without occupying the remainder of the infrastructure.

As for the provider, virtualization in the cloud allows them to virtualize their physical resources — servers, storage, data centers, and computer power — and pool them into a unified infrastructure that can be used to provide numerous cloud-based services.

“With cloud virtualization, customers can use only the parts of the service or resources they need, without needing the accompanying physical infrastructure themselves,” writes DNS Stuff by SolarWinds.

“Virtualization in cloud computing allows a provider to virtualize servers, storage, or other physical hardware or data center resources, which can then, in turn, allow them to provide numerous services, such as infrastructure, software, and platforms.”

Cloud virtualization benefits

The features and characteristics of cloud virtualization translate into numerous benefits for the cloud service provider as well as the users accessing the resources.

A few notable benefits of cloud virtualization include:

  • Improves security
  • Cost-effective in the long-run
  • Contentious and flexible data transfer
  • Reduces system downtime
  • Increases environment testing efficiency
  • Simplifies IT operations

Cloud virtualization use cases

Cloud virtualization solutions are widely used by organizations looking to get the most out of their hardware resources or offer convenient services to customers.

Here are several examples of how organizations in different industries are using cloud virtualization:

TIM

TIM, also known as Telecom Italia, is a leading telecommunications group in Italy and Brazil. In addition to being a Google Cloud Premier Partner, it serves over 30 million customers in its operating regions.

Looking to adopt cloud computing technology for future growth plans, TIM needed to modernize its IT infrastructure.

Working with Google and its partners, Citrix and Noovle, TIM was able to improve scalability with Citrix Virtual Desktop Workloads on Google Cloud and switch to VMs on Google Cloud using Compute Engine.

“It was crucial for us to find the right partner to drive our cloud transformation. We needed flexibility, scalability, and security as well as continuous innovation and evolving expertise. Google Cloud fits the bill perfectly,” says Mauro Maccagnani, head of digital enterprise solutions, TIM.

“Running Citrix Virtual Desktop on Google Cloud frees us from the constraints of physical hardware while providing the operating systems, applications, and information we need, when we need it.”

Working with Google and its partners, TIM was able to move over 6,000 workloads to the Google Cloud, enable faster adaptation for its infrastructure, and reduce the costs of app management.

Carrier Global

Carrier Global is responsible for providing ventilation, air conditioning and heating as well as fire and refrigeration systems for its customers on six continents. Based in Florida, Carrier Global has expanded to over 160 countries.

Looking to boost product development and speed up market release time, Carrier decided to migrate operations to the AWS cloud. Using AWS’ desktop and application virtualization service, Amazon AppStream, in addition to Amazon RDS, it was able to complete the move in a single year.

“Amazon AppStream 2.0 stays up to date. AWS takes care of the infrastructure, and we don’t have to worry about accumulating technical debt,” says Adnan Haq, executive director, Carrier Global.

“We didn’t move to the cloud just to exit our data centers. We wanted to enable digital transformation. AWS offers 150-plus services and minimal downtime, and AWS services are designed for high resiliency and redundancy.”

Since working with AWS, Carrier reduced its infrastructure costs by up to 50% and cut down its infrastructure’s overall size by 20%.

CloudSeeds

CloudSeeds offers business intelligence (BI) applications and tools for network-independent and hassle-free communication. It works with clients in a variety of industries, including education and government.

CloudSeeds needed to create virtualized infrastructures through an open architecture for complete control and configuration access. 

Working with Juniper Networks, it used a number of Juniper’s systems to create its software-defined A.C.R.E. platform, in addition to a variety of hardware solutions as the base for the different virtual networks.

“Our entire architecture is a software-defined structure, and everything we do must work over the network. We knew that Juniper’s technical philosophy fitted what we wanted to do and how we wanted to do it,” says Kevin Fibich, founder and managing director, CloudSeeds.

“The Juniper Networks architecture is unique in the way it has helped us create a software-defined network and in turn, an entire software-defined data center.”

With Juniper Networks, CloudSeeds was able to accomplish zero-touch provisioning and create a scalable infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) offering for its clients.

Cloud virtualization providers

Some of the leading providers of cloud virtualization services in the market include:

  • Datadog
  • Citrix
  • AWS
  • Google Cloud
  • Solarwinds
  • Microsoft
  • Parallels International
  • NComputing
  • IBM

Looking for a server virtualization product?: VMware: vSphere Review.

Anina Ot
Anina Ot
Anina Ot is a contributor to Enterprise Storage Forum and Datamation. She worked in online tech support before becoming a technology writer, and has authored more than 400 articles about cybersecurity, privacy, cloud computing, data science, and other topics. Anina is a digital nomad currently based in Turkey.

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