What Are Virtualization, Cloud Computing, and Grid Computing? Virtualization is the practice of sharing or pooling computing resources, such as servers and storage devices. Server virtualization provides the capability to divide a physical server logically into many virtual servers; storage virtualization provides the capability to create a single logical storage device from many physical storage devices. Cloud computing is an Internet service that provides computing needs to computer users. Grid computing, which often is used in research environments, combines many servers and/or personal computers on a network to act as one large computer. Cloud and grid computing usually charge a fee based on usage or processing time.