What is a benefit of a virtual machine when compared with a physical server?

Virtualization allows multiple isolated virtual machines, each running its own operating system and applications, to share the hardware resources of a single physical server, which significantly enhances hardware utilization and minimizes the need for additional physical hardware purchases.

Virtual machines typically introduce a slight performance overhead due to the hypervisor, meaning they usually do not increase raw processing performance compared to dedicated physical hardware.

CPU and RAM resources on a virtual machine are shared with other VMs on the same host and can be affected by resource contention from them.

While VM deployment can be quick, the initial setup and ongoing management of a virtualization platform often involve significant technical complexity, especially for larger environments.