A virtual machine (VM) is an computer system that is emulated on the top of a physical host machine. It appears like a real computer to the user and runs different operating systems, like Windows Linux or macOS. VMs are popular because they allow multiple operating systems to be hosted on a single server, which could result in significant savings for businesses.
Typically, each VM is the “guest” of a host machine that provides hardware resources like processors, hard disk drives, memory and network connections. In this way, companies can have multiple VMs on the same host machine, providing scalability that allows IT infrastructure to grow or shrink as required. This flexibility allows IT teams to save time on making changes to software since they are able to manage each physical machine instead of having to manage all of them.
There are two kinds of VM Hypervisors which are Type 2 and 1. Type 1 hypervisors offer better performance since they run directly on the host system, without the need for a full-blown operating system. Type 2 hypervisors pass each VM request through the host operating system, which could slow the processing speed and result in additional overhead.
In addition to scalability virtual machines can also improve IT security and disaster recovery. Virtual machines are independent of the physical hardware they run on. This makes it easier to restore the VM in the event of an outage or natural disaster. This can prevent data loss and downtime which can directly impact your read review and see why data room encryption is critical for data protection company’s bottom line.