Virtual Machine
A Virtual Machine (VM) is a software-based emulation of a physical computer that runs an operating system and applications in an isolated environment. It abstracts physical hardware resources, allowing multiple VMs to run on a single physical host, each with its own OS and software stack. VMs provide strong isolation, portability, and flexibility for development, testing, and production workloads.
Developers should use VMs when they need to run multiple isolated operating systems on a single machine, such as for testing software across different OS versions, creating sandboxed development environments, or deploying legacy applications. They are particularly useful for ensuring consistency between development and production setups, as VMs can be easily cloned and migrated across physical hosts.