Hardware vs. software explained

In this video, TechTarget editor Jamison Cush talks about the differences between hardware and software.

"Hardware" is an umbrella term -- with countless bits and pieces falling into the category.

If you can touch it, it's a piece of hardware -- in computer technology, of course.

Computer hardware generally refers to any physical components of a computer -- unlike software, which is an intangible set of instructions. Software tells hardware what to do and hardware makes it happen.

If you were a computer, your thoughts would be software and your brain would be the hardware -- the middleman between an instruction and an action.

Usually, computer hardware is categorized as either internal components -- like a motherboard, CPU, RAM and GPU -- or as external components -- like a mouse, keyboard, camera or memory card.

And while hardware is defined as physical, tangible resources, it can be virtualized -- meaning a hypervisor creates virtual versions of internal hardware to share resources. This is usually associated with infrastructure as a service, or IaaS.

Did you know hardware could be virtual, too? Let us know in the comments and hit that like button, too.