A virtual machine (VM) is an computer system that emulates on the top of a physical host machine. It appears to be a real computer to the user and runs different operating systems such as Windows Linux or macOS. VMs are popular because they allow multiple operating systems to be hosted on one server, which can result in significant cost savings for companies.

Typically, each VM is the “guest” of host machines that provide hardware resources like processors memory, hard disk drives, memory and network connections. This enables a company to put multiple VMs on the same host computer, allowing IT infrastructures to expand and shrink as needed. This flexibility helps IT teams to be less busy working on software updates, as they are able to manage each physical machine instead of having streamline project management with collaborative tools to manage all of them.

There are two types of VM Hypervisors that are Type 2 and Type 1. Type 1 hypervisors are more efficient in performance as they operate directly on the host machine without the requirement of a full-blown operating system. Type 2 hypervisors route each VM request to the host operating system. This can reduce processing speeds and add cost.

Virtual machines can help improve IT security as well as disaster recovery. Since the virtual environment is independent from the hardware running it that makes it easier to restore from the VM than a physical machine in case of a power outage or natural disaster. This can prevent downtime and data loss that can directly affect your business’s bottom line.