What is Azure Virtual Machine (VM)?

An Azure Virtual Machine is an on-demand, scalable computing resource that provides the flexibility of virtualization without buying and maintaining physical hardware. It is an IaaS offering that gives you full control over the operating system (Windows or Linux), software installation, and configuration. VMs are billed per second when running. Key concepts: VM Size (CPU, RAM, storage configuration — e.g., B-series for burstable, D-series for general purpose, F-series for compute-optimized). VM Scale Sets automatically scale the number of VMs based on demand. VMs require you to manage patching, scaling, and availability manually compared to PaaS alternatives like App Service.