Using Virtualization And Databases

Module 6: Using Virtualization And Databases

Using Virtualization And Databases

๐Ÿ“… August 1, 2026  •  ⏱️ 5 min read  •  ๐ŸŽ“ Intermediate

Introduction

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is one of the fundamental cloud service models, and its underlying foundation is virtualization. Containerization is a newer variation of virtualization that fits well with loosely coupled software architectures and DevOps processes. This lesson covers and differentiates both virtualization types.

๐Ÿ’ก Cloud-Hosted Databases

Cloud-hosted databases make up a significant number of the services offered by cloud service providers. Relational (SQL) and non-relational (NoSQL) databases are available, and you can choose whether to manage them yourself or subscribe to managed database administration.

Module Objectives

Track your progress! Click on each objective below to mark it as completed as you study.

  • Understand virtualization concepts
  • Understand containerization concepts
  • Differentiate relational and non-relational database types

Virtualization Concepts

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Exam Objectives Covered: 1.7 Compare and contrast virtualization concepts.

Virtual machines rely on a layer that virtualizes hardware, whereas containers rely on a virtualized operating system. A hypervisor application provides this virtualization. Virtual machines (VMs) are an essential part of today's IT deployments because they provide better resource utilization, easier scalability, and high availability.

Virtual Machines (VMs)

VMs are commonly found in both on-premises and cloud environments. They rely on a hypervisor to virtualize the underlying hardware, allowing multiple operating systems to run on a single physical server.

Abstraction Layer

Virtualizes Hardware

Includes

Full Guest OS

Isolation

Strong (Kernel level)

Boot Time

Minutes

Containers

Containerization is a newer variation of virtualization that fits well with loosely coupled software architectures and DevOps processes. They rely on a virtualized operating system rather than hardware.

Abstraction Layer

Virtualizes OS

Includes

App + Dependencies only

Isolation

Process level

Boot Time

Milliseconds

Common VM Use Cases

Click on each use case to learn more about how VMs are utilized in modern IT environments:

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Production Servers
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Hosting live applications and services with high availability and easy scalability.
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Development Servers
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Providing isolated environments for developers to build and test code safely.
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Test Environments
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Replicating production setups to run QA tests without risking live data.
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Learning Labs
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Safe, sandboxed spaces for students and IT pros to practice new skills.

Cloud Environments

Cloud environments are built on virtualization and can host VMs in their data centers rather than on your organization's local hardware. This can be an attractive benefit as it offloads hardware support to the cloud service provider.

✅ Better Resource Utilization ๐Ÿ“ˆ Easier Scalability ๐Ÿ›ก️ High Availability ๐Ÿ”ง Offloaded Hardware Support

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