Virtual Hardware
Virtual hardware refers to the emulation or abstraction of physical computer hardware components, such as CPUs, memory, storage, and network interfaces, within a virtualized environment. It enables the creation of virtual machines (VMs) or containers that run on top of physical hardware, allowing multiple isolated systems to share the same underlying resources. This technology is foundational to cloud computing, server consolidation, and development/testing environments.
Developers should learn about virtual hardware when working with virtualization platforms like VMware, Hyper-V, or KVM, as it is essential for deploying scalable and isolated applications in cloud environments (e.g., AWS EC2, Azure VMs). It is crucial for DevOps practices, enabling consistent development, testing, and production setups, and for optimizing resource utilization in data centers by reducing hardware costs and improving flexibility.