Installing one or more virtual machines on your computer allows you to run several programmes at once, on different operating systems. This partitioning means you can work on several things at a time, as well as divide system resources evenly.

Storage and management of virtual machines are easy, since you can save the entire state of a virtual machine to your files to access for later. Like files, they can also be moved and copied.

With virtualization, you reduce your spending on physical servers. You can run your application and operating system workloads on one server and use scheduling and partitioning constraints to make your computing environment more agile. This also speeds up processing and prevents unnecessary downtime.

Virtual machines are stored as a file on the hard drive, so you can install as many as you like with your preferred operating system. If you’re running Mac OS but would like to use a Windows programme, you can run that programme on a virtual machine with Windows.

Virtual machines also give you a layer of security. You can test new applications or system updates in a virtual machine, without causing potential harm to your computer.