---
title: "Virtual Machines"
sidebar_label: "Virtual Machines"
description: "Barbara Core deployment on VMware, KVM, and Hyper-V virtual machines — flexible, hardware-independent runtime for testing, CI/CD, and on-prem virtualization."
lastmod: "2026-05-12"
---

A **Virtual Machine (VM)** is a software-based emulation of a physical computer that runs within a **hypervisor** or virtualization layer. Unlike physical devices, VMs simulate hardware resources—CPU, memory, storage, networking—allowing multiple operating systems to run on the same host machine.

VMs offer several benefits: they are **portable**, **hardware-independent**, and ideal for **testing, development, and staging environments**. They integrate seamlessly with both **on-prem and cloud infrastructures**, enabling rapid deployment without requiring dedicated hardware.

However, they can introduce a slight **performance overhead** and may require extra configuration for hardware passthrough, such as GPU access. For latency-sensitive or real-time workloads, **physical edge devices** may still be the preferred option.

**Barbara Core** supports deployment on the most common virtualization platforms:
- [**VMware**](https://www.vmware.com/)
- [**KVM**](https://www.linux-kvm.org/)
- [**Hyper-V**](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/virtualization/hyper-v-on-windows/)

:::note

If you're planning to deploy Barbara Core in a virtual environment and need assistance choosing the right format or image, please contact our **sales or support team**.

:::