CIS 512 Discussion Response

CIS512 discussion post responses.

KR States the following:

From the e-Activity, examine at least three (3) benefits and three (3) drawbacks that an organization or individual could experience using virtualization. Recommend one (1) individual or organization that would highly benefit from using virtualization. Provide a rationale for your response.

Three benefits that an organization could experience are financial relief, reduced workloads, and minimized downtime.  Virtualization is cheaper because it does not require actual hardware components to be used or installed.  If an organization can save a significant amount of money, that itself is a significant benefit.  Employees within an organization could become overwhelmed overtime due to workload.  IT professionals within an organization will be able to focus more on other tasks because virtualization providers automatically update hardware and software.  The third benefit of minimized downtime is critical.  Virtualization uptime has improved over the years.  Most providers offer an uptime that is 99%.  More uptime could equate to more revenue generated.

Three drawbacks that an organization could experience are scalability issues, availability issues, and security risks.  Virtualization has the ability to help an organization grow and find opportunities quickly, but growing too fast could become an issue.  An organization needs to keep in mind that virtualization could equate to rapid growth.  Secondly, virtualization could cause availability issues.  Third-party vendors control the virtualization process, and if issues arise, it could hinder an organization.  Becoming reliant on a third-party vendor to fix issues could put a dent in employees completing their work.  Lastly, virtualization could open up some security risks.  Nowadays, data is targeted frequently, and the chances of experiencing a data breach while relying on a third-party virtualization vendor increases. 

Evaluate the efficiency and reliability of both the most common non-preemptive dispatch algorithms and the most common preemptive dispatch algorithms used for scheduling decisions. Provide one (1) example of the best use for each dispatch algorithm.

A scheduling algorithm is an algorithm that controls how much CPU time is allocated to processes and threads.  There are two types of scheduling algorithms.  The two types are non-preemptive and preemptive.  It is the responsibility of the CPU scheduler to allot a process to the CPU whenever the CPU is in an idle state.  The CPU scheduler selects a processed from a ready queue and allocates the process to the CPU.  When a process switches from running state to the ready state, it is called preemptive scheduling.  On the other hand, when a process terminates or switches from running to waiting for state, it is called Non-Preemptive scheduling.

References:

https://vittana.org/14-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-virtualization

https://techdifferences.com/difference-between-preemptive-and-non-preemptive-scheduling-in-os.html

https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/preemptive-and-non-preemptive-scheduling/

SM Post states the following:

· From the e-Activity, examine at least three (3) benefits and three (3) drawbacks that an organization or individual could experience using virtualization. Recommend one (1) individual or organization that would highly benefit from using virtualization. Provide a rationale for your response.

I have actually been at multiple companies that have utilized virtualization in one form or another.  Companies that have high speed Internet, and are able to use virtualization definitely should.  I know that my current company is both in the cloud, and yet utilizing virtualization for different Etools apps.  It works as long as everything is streamlined, and there is no latency in the Internet.  Unlike my old company once everything was deployed, upper management was not happy with the outcome of the project because the speed and latency was not tested properly and Verizon had to come in and add a T3 because the speed was so bad.  Someone may have a drawback with virtualization depending on the licenses that correspond with it.

Benefits:  Businesses with limited funds, virtualization can help them by eliminating the need to invest in different types of hardware.  Tasks can start getting automated and centralize resource management with environments in the workplace.  Also, virtualization helps with data access.  Having the ability to access data anywhere at any time makes traveling, or consulting or anything else a lot easier.

Drawbacks:  The upfront cost associated with upgrading a legacy environment can bring pretty hefty costs when upgrading hardware systems.  Another drawback is that not all software can be virtualized.  This can be very difficult for a company especially if they are reliant on a certain application that they use on a daily basis.  Lastly, the licenses related to virtualization can bring complications due to multiple hosts and migrations.  (BUSINESS NEWS DAILY, 2017)

 

· Evaluate the efficiency and reliability of both the most common nonpreemptive dispatch algorithms and the most common preemptive dispatch algorithms used for scheduling decisions. Provide one (1) example of the best use for each dispatch algorithm.

Preemptive scheduling is when the CPU cycles are allocated to the process for a certain amount of time.  It is then taken away and the process is placed back in the que if that process has CPU burst time remaining.  Some examples of preemptive scheduling are round robin (RR), and shortest remaining time first (SRTF).  Non-preemptive is when the process terminates or switches from running to waiting state.  “Once the CPU cycles and allocated to a process the process holds the CPU till it is terminated or reaches the waiting state.  Examples of non-preemptive scheduling are:  shortest job first (SJF), and priority.” (Hotjar)

References

BUSINESS NEWS DAILY. (2017, October 2). Retrieved December 2, 2019, from The Pros and Cons of Virtualization: https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/6014-pros-cons-virtualization.html

Hotjar. (n.d.). Retrieved December 1, 2019, from Preemptive and Non-Preemptive Scheduling: https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/preemptive-and-non-preemptive-scheduling/