Introduction
Hypervisors, also called virtual machine managers (VMMs), allow multiple operating systems to efficiently share hardware resources on a single physical server. There are two primary types of hypervisors:
- Type 1 – Also known as "bare metal" hypervisors, these run directly on server hardware with guest VMs in software partitions above the hypervisor layer.
- Type 2 – Runs as a software application on top of a traditional operating system, with guest VMs executing as processes in the application layer.
These two hypervisor models have existed for over 50 years, evolving dramatically different architectures, security implications, and use cases. In this extensive guide, we analyze how CPU advances ultimately fueled massive adoption of type 1 hypervisors while type 2 hypervisors carved out niche roles for developers and tech enthusiasts. We chart the market landscape from early mainframe virtualization to the cloud era, spotlighting key innovations from industry leaders like VMware, Microsoft and Oracle.
Let‘s start our journey by examining the hypervisor‘s origins as both an extraordinary technological achievement and a practical solution to evolving business needs.
The Mainframe Virtualization Revolution
Long before public cloud infrastructure popularized shared resource pools, mainframe systems pioneered virtualization technology out of pure economic necessity…
Type 1 Hypervisors Mature in the Enterprise
With hardware acceleration available, all indicators pointed to type 1 hypervisors flourishing for enterprise usage. IDC estimates that between 2005-2015, x86 server hardware supporting virtualization increased from 5% to nearly 95% penetration across organizations. Type 1 hypervisor design provided security, flexibility and scalability perfect for data centers consolidating workloads onto shared infrastructure…
Type 2 Hypervisors Find Their Niche as Client Solutions
Although virtualization revolutionized the enterprise server landscape with type 1 solutions, type 2 hypervisors carved out a niche on the client side for developers and computing enthusiasts. By running as a desktop application on Windows, macOS and Linux, users could leverage type 2 products to test software, run secondary operating systems, and experiment freely without risk to the underlying host environment.
Oracle‘s open source VirtualBox software epitomizes this class of tooling…
Leading Hypervisor Market Share 2005-2022
| Company | 2022 Market Share | 2005 Market Share |
|---|---|---|
| VMWare | 80% | 52% |
| Microsoft | 15% | 8% |
| Citrix | 3% | 13% |
| Oracle | 2% | N/A |
Source: Gartner
The Cloud and Container Era
As leading organizations shifted from on-premise virtualization to elastic cloud platforms, including AWS, Azure and GCP, some speculated this might diminish the hypervisor‘s importance. Why manage your own type 1 VMM layer when container orchestrators like Kubernetes could virtualize at the OS level?
In reality, the hypervisor remains deeply embedded in cloud infrastructure, powering not only VM-based services but also providing the foundation for container runtimes and serverless computing behind the scenes…
The Next Hypervisor Frontier
So where are hypervisors headed in the future?…
