Tech Glossary
What is Xen?
Xen is an open source virtualization platform that enables users to run multiple operating systems and applications on a single physical computer. Xen uses a so-called hypervisor layer model, which means that there is one operating system (called dom0) that has access to all resources on the machine, and several other operating systems (called domUs) that run on top of this operating system. In this way, multiple users can share the same physical computer without having to install multiple operating systems. Xen is one of the most widely used virtualization platforms, and is used by many large companies and organizations, including Amazon, IBM and Google. Compared to other virtualization platforms, Xen is one of the fastest and most flexible.