1. A system comprising: at least one processor; at least one memory communicatively coupled to said at least one processor, the memory having stored therein computer-executable instructions that, upon execution by the at least one processor, cause the system to at least: obtain a static virtual disk image of a virtual machine, the static virtual disk image comprising one or more sections including a virtual machine configuration information section, the virtual machine configuration information section containing only configuration information about the virtual machine and accessible by an application independently from accessing other sections of the static virtual disk image, said virtual machine configuration information section comprising an extensions section for providing extensible storage of content information associated with the static virtual disk image; read only the virtual machine configuration information section included in the static virtual disk image without accessing the other sections included in the virtual disk image and without attaching the static virtual disk image to the virtual machine, launching the virtual machine, and reading the virtual machine configuration information through the virtual machine; determine, based on the virtual machine configuration information section, virtual machine configuration data for loading and executing the virtual machine; and instantiate the virtual machine using the virtual machine configuration data and the static virtual disk image.