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What Is a Virtual Machine (VM)?

A virtual machine is a virtual representation, or impersonation, of a physical computer. They are often referred to as a guest while the physical machine they run on is referred to as the host. VM’s mimics the entire host computer. They are often used for testing, backing up data, or running SaaS applications. A VM cannot interact directly with a physical computer. Instead, it needs a hypervisor to coordinate between it and the underlying physical hardware. The hypervisor does the work of allocating physical computing resources—such as processors, memory, and storage—to each VM. It keeps each VM separate from others so they do not interfere with each other.   One can create a virtual machine using virtualization software. Examples include Microsoft Hyper-V Manager, VMware Workstation Pro, and Parallels Desktop. These applications allow you to run multiple VMs on a single computer. For example, Parallels Desktop for Mac allows you to run Windows, Linux, and macOS virtual machine