Supportsoft Glossary

Virtual Machines for Secure, Isolated Development

A Virtual Machine (VM) is, in its most basic form, a computer that operates inside another computer. The virtual machine does not need to rely on the physical hardware for its operations; it is completely software-based, that is, it creates an entire machine—operating system, storage, memory, and applications included—through the use of another machine's hardware. Thus, an isolated environment is created for each of the virtual systems, allowing them to run at the same time on the single physical device.

The use of VMs is a common practice among developers and IT teams for various purposes. They are perfect for conducting tests on software through different environments without the need for numerous physical devices. By way of example, one can have a Windows, a Linux, and a macOS VM on one machine for the purpose of compatibility checking. Another good example of VMs' commonality is in enterprise environments, where they play a significant role in server consolidation due to their capability to maximise the utilisation of hardware resources and, consequently, lower costs.

Security has been another important aspect that most users see as one of the greatest benefits. Users will not have to worry about things like malware, software crashes, etc. affecting their host machine, as they can be confident that these problems would not go beyond the VMs. This mixture of flexibility, control, and isolation turns VMs into a strong and versatile resource for both private and business applications.