A virtual machine, abbreviated as VM, is no different from any other physical computer like a smartphone, laptop, or server. It has memory, CPU, and disks to store files, and if needed it can connect to the internet. While the parts that make up your computer (called hardware) are physical, VMs are often thought of as virtual computers or software-defined computers within physical servers, existing only as code.

How does a virtual machine work?
Virtualization is creating a software-based, or "virtual" version of a computer, with dedicated amounts of CPU, memory, and storage that are "borrowed" from a physical host computer—like your personal computer.

A virtual machine is a computer file, generally called an image, that acts like an actual computer. It can run in a window as a separate computing environment, often to run a different operating system—or even to function as the user's intact computer experience—as is common on many people's work computers. The virtual machine is split from the rest of the system, meaning that the software inside a VM can't interfere with the host computer's primary operating system.

Virtual machines are used in such ways:-

• Building and deploying apps to the cloud.
• Virtual machines make an easy workflow for testing applications and websites.
• Try a new operating system (OS)
• Backing up your existing OS