Which of the following best describes the purpose of server virtualization?

• A. Partitioning a server's resources to run multiple virtual machines
• B. Duplicating physical servers into identical hardware sets
• C. Replacing hardware with cloud-based equivalents
• D. Eliminating virtualization overhead entirely

Answer: (A)

Server virtualization is about making one physical server look like several by partitioning its resources and running multiple virtual machines on top of a hypervisor. This lets each VM have its own operating system and applications while sharing CPU, memory, storage, and network with other VMs on the same host. The result is better hardware utilization, easier provisioning, simpler management, and the ability to move or scale VMs without touching the physical hardware.

The other ideas don’t fit this purpose: duplicating hardware describes hardware-level mirroring rather than virtualization; replacing hardware with cloud-based equivalents is a different deployment approach (cloud or outsourcing); and eliminating virtualization overhead is not the goal, since virtualization introduces some overhead even as it provides many benefits.