VMware Workstation

What is a Virtual Machine:

A Virtual Machine, is a computer software implementation of hardware in which you can install an  operating system(OS) that executes programs, applications and scripts just like the real machine do.

VMware:

VMware provides users to set/simulate  a group of computers in order to test software or applications prior to deployment in a known environment.

VMware in Software Testing:

Quality Assurance Teams use VMware Workstation to test applications/software on a variety of operating systems(OS), application platforms and browsers with different configurations of tasks.

Difference between VMware Player and VMware Workstation:

VMware Player is like a subset of VMware Workstation.

1. The major difference is in the previous versions(versions earlier than 3) of VMware Player, you can only run virtual machines created on other versions like VMware Workstation but you cannot create a virtual machine itself. But the newer Versions of VMware Player has the ability to create Virtual machine but the major difference would be VMware Player is available for free while the VMware Workstation costs.
2. In VMware Workstation, you can create multiple snapshots and Clones which helps in case of failures from software or hardware. That is this feature enables users  to create a base VM and Clone it and use it for other software installations and test applications and if there is any kind of crash or system failure you still have your base VMware Workstation. VMware Player is lacking this feature of creating Clones and multiple snapshots.
3. VMware Workstation has the ability to create and manage teams by grouping them while VMware Player is lacking this feature. By grouping multiple VM s into teams, certain operations can be performed on all the members of the team as if it is one machine.
4.  VMware Workstation has the ability to handle VRM(Virtual Rights Management) while the VMware Player does not.