Hypervisors

A hypervisor is a software that you can use to run multiple virtual machines on a single physical machine. Every virtual machine has its own operating system and applications. The hypervisor allocates the underlying physical computing resources such as CPU and memory to individual virtual machines as required. Thus, it supports the optimal use of physical IT infrastructure.

Hypervisors are the underlying technology behind virtualization or the decoupling of hardware from software. IT administrators can create multiple virtual machines on a single host machine.

Each virtual machine has its own operating system and hardware resources such as a CPU, a graphics accelerator, and storage. You can install software applications on a virtual machine, just like you do on a physical computer.

The fundamentals of virtual machines and other virtualization technologies have enabled cloud computing services in enterprise applications. They allow you to scale computing services efficiently on limited hardware infrastructure.

For example, different business departments can run different workloads separately by using multiple virtual machines on a single server.