VMware is a software vendor, not a synonym for "virtual machine": it is a company, founded in 1998 and now owned by Broadcom following a $69 billion acquisition that closed on November 22, 2023, that builds virtualization products, while a virtual machine is the generic term for an emulated computer that can run on VMware's software or on several competing hypervisors.
What does "VMware" actually refer to?
VMware is the name of the company and its product line, not a piece of computing terminology. Its core products include VMware Workstation and Fusion, desktop hypervisors for Windows, Linux, and Mac, VMware ESXi, a bare-metal type-1 hypervisor that installs directly on server hardware, and VMware vSphere, which bundles ESXi with the vCenter Server management layer. Since Broadcom's acquisition, the flagship offering is VMware Cloud Foundation, combining compute, storage, and networking virtualization into one platform. In November 2024, Broadcom made Workstation Pro and Fusion Pro free for personal, educational, and commercial use, removing the license fee that previously applied to commercial deployments.
What is a virtual machine, then?
A virtual machine is an emulated computer, complete with its own virtual CPU, memory, disk, and network interface, running inside a host machine's software layer instead of on its own physical hardware. The concept predates VMware by decades, since IBM was running virtualized mainframe environments in the 1960s and 70s, and it is not tied to any single vendor. VMware's hypervisors create and run VMs, but so do Microsoft Hyper-V, the open-source KVM hypervisor built into Linux, Oracle VirtualBox, Citrix Xen, and the VM instances offered by AWS EC2, Azure, and Google Compute Engine.
How do the two terms relate in practice?
Saying "VMware" when you mean "a virtual machine" is like saying "Ford" when you mean "a car": VMware is one of the companies that makes the thing, not the thing itself. In technical documentation or team discussions, "VMware environment" points to a specific stack such as vSphere, ESXi, or Workstation and Fusion, while "virtual machine" could describe a VM running on any hypervisor or cloud provider, VMware or otherwise. Keeping the two terms distinct avoids confusion when troubleshooting, provisioning infrastructure, or comparing tools across vendors.
Updated: July 27, 2026
Related VMware Questions And Answers
- What is VMware used for?
- Will AI replace VMware developers?
- VMware vs VirtualBox: which is better for local virtualization?
- VMware vs Hyper-V: which is better for Windows-first teams?
- VMware vs Proxmox: which is better for homelab and SMB?
- Is VMware commonly used for front-end or back-end development?
- Is VMware a good tool for cloud infrastructure management?
- What is the difference between VMware and Hyper-V?
- What are the benefits of using VMware?
- Which programming languages are used to build VMware products?
- Will AI replace VMware virtualisation engineers in 2026?
- What are the disadvantages of VMware?
- What is the difference between VMware and AWS?
Hire trusted VMware devs from Ukraine & Europe in 48h
Skip the hiring headaches and get trusted VMware developers who deliver results. Cortance has helped startups scale to million-dollar success stories.
Find your perfect VMware tech match
Looking for VMware at the moment
All our VMware are currently busy.
Leave a request for info — we'll notify you once a suitable one becomes available.
Cortance helped us to deliver the system on time, even with the client's last-minute feature requests. The launch was a success, and the client left a very positive feedback. Describe your overall experience in details. And because the client was very satisfied with the finished product, they have decided to continue working with us further.
Cortance provided us with three AI/ML experienced backend developers who met our tech expectations and integrated into our team well. They picked up our workflows quickly and, because of their solid experience, helped us to sort all the Machine learning-related tasks. The hiring process was also fast and efficient, which helped us scale without delays.
Thinking about how to expand a tech team flexibly to adapt to different working paces?
Accelerate development, meet launch deadlines with flexible, much-needed capacity. Add new skills your team currently lacks.
Questions About Specialized Skills
