# Virtual Machine

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A virtual machine (VM) is a computer and its operating system 
that is not bound to a particular piece of hardware. 
VMs rely on [virtualization](https://glossary.cncf.io/virtualization/) to carve a single physical computer into multiple virtual computers. 
That separation allows organizations and infrastructure providers to 
easily create and destroy VMs without impacting the underlying hardware.

## Problem it addresses

When a [bare metal](https://glossary.cncf.io/bare-metal-machine/) machine is bound to a single operating system, 
how well the machine's resources can be used is somewhat limited. 
Also, when an operating system is bound to a single physical machine, 
its availability is directly tied to that hardware. 
If the physical machine is offline due to maintenance or hardware failures, so is the operating system.

## How it helps

By removing the direct relationship between an operating system and a single physical machine, 
you solve several problems of bare metal machines: 
provisioning time, hardware utilization, and resiliency.

With no new hardware to be bought, installed, or configured to support it, 
provisioning time for a new computer is dramatically improved. 
VMs allow you to use your existing physical hardware resources better 
by placing multiple virtual machines on a single physical machine. 
Not bound to a particular physical machine, VMs are also more resilient than physical machines. 
When a physical machine needs to go offline, 
the VMs running on it can be moved to another machine with little to no downtime.

## In sign language

Video: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fq-kda8kIHg>

**Note**:
While each country has its own sign language we,
the [Deaf/Hoh Working Group](https://contribute.cncf.io/accessibility/deaf-and-hard-of-hearing/),
aim to standardize signs for new cloud-native terms for global use.

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- Canonical URL: https://glossary.cncf.io/virtual-machine/
- Status: Completed
- Last modified March 12, 2025: ` Initial release of the Sign Language feature (#3406) ` ([763d1bd](https://github.com/cncf/glossary/commit/763d1bdb618baee8735476d443676d5a6465799a))
- Source: https://github.com/cncf/glossary/blob/main/content/en/virtual-machine.md
- License: [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)