What is the specialized operating system that hosts virtual machines called?

The correct answer is a hypervisor because it is the specialized software that enables the creation, management, and operation of virtual machines (VMs). It acts as a platform that sits between the physical hardware of a server and the virtual machines themselves. Hypervisors are crucial for virtualization, as they allocate resources, manage the requests between VMs and the hardware, and ensure that each VM operates in isolation from one another to maintain security and stability.

There are two types of hypervisors: Type 1, or bare-metal hypervisors, which run directly on the hardware and do not require a host operating system; and Type 2, or hosted hypervisors, which run on a conventional operating system and thus rely on that OS to function. This distinction further showcases the role of hypervisors in leveraging physical resources to support multiple operating systems and applications in a virtualized environment.

The other options refer to different concepts. A cloud platform relates to broader services that may include virtualization but is not itself a hypervisor. A virtual server typically refers to a specific instance or application running on top of a hypervisor, not the technology that manages it. An operating system serves as the software that manages hardware and software resources on a computer but does not