Understanding the key concepts of compute
A virtual machine is a software emulation of a physical computer. Just like a regular computer, it runs an operating system and whatever applications you install on it. Ultimately, it does run on physical hardware. However, in the cloud, the cloud platform abstracts the physical hardware and the hypervisor that manages the virtual machines from the user.
Virtual machines are most commonly available on cloud platforms in two flavors: Linux and Windows, with various current and historical versions supported through marketplace offerings on the cloud platform itself.
The primary configuration attributes of a virtual machine are its size, the virtual machine image to use as its operating system disk, additional data disks, and network configuration.
Cloud platforms use a Stock-Keeping Unit (SKU) to create a standard configuration that dictates the size and hardware profile of the virtual machine. This pattern is typical across cloud platforms...
