Overview
Xen is a mature and highly secure hypervisor that supports both paravirtualization (PV) and hardware-assisted virtualization (HVM). It is a key technology behind many public cloud providers, most notably Amazon Web Services (AWS) in its early years.
Key Characteristics
- Microkernel Design: The hypervisor itself is very small, with most management tasks handled by a special privileged VM called 'Domain 0' (dom0).
- Security: Its small codebase and strong isolation make it a popular choice for security-focused environments.
- Performance: Provides near-native performance for virtualized workloads.
Current Status
Xen remains a popular choice for both enterprise data centers and cloud infrastructure, and is a graduated project of the Linux Foundation.