Virtualization is a technology that enables the creation of virtual environments by abstracting physical hardware resources such as processors, memory, storage, and networks. This abstraction allows multiple virtual machines (VMs) to run on a single physical machine, each operating as if it were an independent computer with its own operating system and applications.

The core of virtualization lies in the use of hypervisors, which are software layers that manage the allocation of physical resources to VMs. Hypervisors ensure that VMs operate independently without interfering with one another. There are two types of hypervisors: Type 1 (bare-metal), which runs directly on hardware, and Type 2 (hosted), which runs on an existing operating system.