# Bare Metal Bare metal refers to a computer system or network architecture in which the operating system or application runs directly on the hardware without any intermediary software layer, such as a hypervisor or virtual machine manager. In other words, bare metal is a term used to describe a computer system that has not been configured with any software or operating system. Bare metal is often used in high-performance computing applications where the goal is to achieve maximum processing power and minimal latency. It can also be used in embedded systems, where the system is designed to perform a specific function and does not require a full-fledged operating system. Bare metal is different from virtualization, where multiple virtual machines share the same physical hardware resources. With bare metal, the operating system or application has exclusive access to the hardware, which can result in better performance and lower overhead compared to virtualized environments. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://docs.console.zenlayer.com/glossary/b/bare-metal.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.