What Is a Virtual Machine (VM)?
A virtual machine (VM) is an isolated software-defined computing environment that operates as an independent system while sharing underlying physical infrastructure with other virtual workloads.
Each VM contains its own operating system, applications, storage, memory allocation, virtual processors, and networking components. Resources are supplied by a virtualization platform that distributes available hardware capacity among multiple virtual machines running on the same host.
Virtualization allows organizations to consolidate workloads onto shared infrastructure while maintaining separation between applications and operating systems. Because virtual machines can be created, duplicated, migrated, or retired through software, they are commonly used to support application deployment, testing, workload mobility, and infrastructure standardization.
Many business-critical applications, databases, and services run inside virtual machines, making VM protection an important element of data protection planning. Modern backup platforms often integrate directly with virtualization environments through a hypervisor’s APIs, changed block tracking (CBT), application-aware processing, and image-based protection methods designed specifically for virtual workloads.
As hybrid cloud and multi-cloud environments continue to expand, virtual machines remain a widely used method for delivering flexible and portable computing resources across different infrastructure platforms.
Why Virtual Machines Matter
Virtual machines allow multiple workloads to share physical infrastructure while maintaining operational independence, helping organizations manage computing resources more efficiently.