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What is Instances?

It is each independent copy of a software or system running at the same time.

Overview

In the computer world, when you start a program, an 'instance' of that program is created in memory. If you open three different windows of the same program, you are running three different copies (instances) of that program. Each is independent of the others and holds its own data.

Analogy: It is like opening a Word file in two different windows; each window uses the same program, but the texts you are working on are independent of each other.

How it works

System resources allocate a separate space for each copy. Thus, if an error occurs in one copy or the program crashes, the other copies can continue to run without being affected.

Where it is used

It is very frequently used in cloud computing, server management, and game servers.

Commonly confused with

It should not be confused with the program itself (source code); there is one source code, but there can be unlimited running copies.

Frequently asked questions

Why do we run multiple copies?

It is used to distribute the load, increase security, or manage the tasks of different users at the same time.

Related terms

This explanation was written in plain language for TreScout and machine-translated from the Turkish original · the Turkish version prevails. If something looks wrong or missing, write to hello@trescout.com. Read in Turkish →