VM
A virtual machine (VM) is a software-based emulation of a physical computer that runs an operating system and applications, offering flexible resource isolation and portability.
A virtual machine (VM) emulates physical hardware through a hypervisor, allowing multiple isolated operating systems to run on shared resources while ensuring strong isolation and dynamic allocation of CPU, memory, and storage.
VMs are widely used in cloud environments and data centers to consolidate workloads, support diverse operating systems, and simplify deployment and management through snapshots, cloning, and live migration.
Internally, hypervisors leverage hardware virtualization extensions to manage guest OS interactions with CPU and I/O, enforce isolation policies, and schedule resources. While VMs provide flexibility and compatibility, they introduce performance overhead compared to bare-metal and require careful capacity planning and security hardening.