Which virtualization component creates virtual machines and abstracts hardware so multiple VMs can run concurrently?

A hypervisor is a software layer that creates and runs virtual machines (VMs). It abstracts the underlying physical hardware, allowing multiple operating systems and applications to run concurrently on a single physical server. This increases hardware utilization and flexibility. Containers (like Docker and rkt) are a different form of virtualization that virtualize the operating system rather than the hardware, providing isolated user-space environments for applications. While containers offer efficiency, they do not abstract hardware or create full virtual machines in the same way a hypervisor does.