Simple definition
A Type 1 hypervisor, also called a bare-metal hypervisor, runs directly on physical server hardware instead of being installed as an application inside a general-purpose host operating system.
Technical definition
The hypervisor controls CPU scheduling, memory allocation, virtual storage and virtual networking at the hardware layer. Guest operating systems run in isolated virtual machines above that layer, which reduces dependency on a separate host OS and provides a platform designed specifically for virtualization.
What is it used for?
Type 1 hypervisors are primarily used in datacenters, private clouds and production clusters where availability, isolation, centralized management and predictable performance are important.
Key distinction
A Type 1 hypervisor owns the virtualization layer directly on the server. This architecture is commonly associated with enterprise platforms such as VMware ESXi and Microsoft Hyper-V.