What Does Open Virtualization Format (OVF) Mean?
Open Virtualization Format (OVF) is a specification that describes an open-standard, secure, efficient, portable and extensible format for packaging and distributing software for virtual machines. The OVF standard is independent of any particular hypervisor or processor architecture. With the increasing demand for virtualization technology software, there is a great need for an open standard way to package and distribute the virtual appliances that can be run on virtual machines.
Techopedia Explains Open Virtualization Format (OVF)
The Open Virtualization Format allows customers to experience the enhanced flexibility, portability, platform independence, verification, versioning, signing and licensing terms that virtualization provides. OVF facilitates flexible, secure and efficient distribution of enterprise software by providing virtual machine mobility across multiple platforms. This helps customers and vendors deploy a virtual machine that follows OVF specification on any virtualization platform. Some of the important features of OVF include:
