Containers vs VMs (virtual machines): What are the differences?

Virtual machines provide an abstracted version of the entire hardware of a physical machine, including the CPU, memory, and storage. Containers are portable instances of software with its dependencies that run on a physical or virtual machine.

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What is the difference between containers and virtual machines (VMs)?

Virtual machines access the hardware of a physical machine through a hypervisor. The hypervisor creates an abstraction layer allowing the VM to access CPU, memory, and storage. Containers, on the other hand, represent a package that includes an executable with the dependencies it needs to run.

This means that each container shares the physical machine's hardware and operating system kernel with other containers.

As a result, virtual machines are typically more resource-intensive than containers. However, virtual machines also provide a high level of isolation, which can be important for security and compliance reasons. Containers are more lightweight and portable than virtual machines. This makes them a good choice for applications that need to be deployed quickly and easily, where compute must be optimized.

What are containers?

Containers are lightweight, portable, and self-contained executable images that contain software applications and their dependencies. They are used to deploy and run applications in a consistent way across different environments, such as development, staging, and production. Containers are typically deployed from an image by using an orchestration platform, like Kubernetes. These platforms provide a way to manage and deploy containers at scale.

Containers have a number of benefits over traditional virtualization methods. As they are more lightweight and portable than VMs, containers support decomposition of a monolith into microservices. Containers are faster to manage and deploy than VMs, which can save time and money with application deployment.

What are virtual machines?

Virtual machines (VMs) or guests represent instances of an operating system co-located on a physical machine through the use of a hypervisor. Each VM has its own operating system, memory, and other resources, which are isolated from the other VMs on the same physical computer. This allows multiple operating systems to run on the same physical components without interfering with each other.

Virtual machines are created and managed using hypervisor software. A hypervisor is software that manages a physical computer's resources and allocates them to virtual machines.

Containers and virtual machines are both technologies that can be used to run software applications. However, they have different approaches.

Containers are segregated applications or services on a host and share the same operating system
Virtual machines are isolated instances of an operating system on a physical host and run applications or services

Containers have a smaller footprint than virtual machines. This is because containers share the host operating system's kernel, while virtual machines each have their own kernel. As a result, containers can start and stop faster, and they use fewer resources.

Virtual machines are isolated from each other, which can help to prevent attacks from spreading between guests.

Containers and virtual machines can be used together. For example, a container can be used to run an application, and a virtual machine can be used to provide the underlying infrastructure. This approach can be used to get the best of both worlds: the portability and speed of containers, and the security of virtual machines.

Here is a table that summarizes the key differences between containers and virtual machines:

Feature	Container	Virtual machine
Operating system	Shares the host operating system's kernel	Has its own kernel
Portability	More portable	Less portable
Speed	Faster to start up and shut down	Slower to start up and shut down
Resource usage	Uses fewer resources	Uses more resources
Use cases	Good for portable and scalable applications	Good for isolated applications

What are common use cases for containers?

Containers are a popular choice for a variety of use cases, including:

Web development: Containers are a good choice for web development because they can be easily deployed to a variety of environments, such as development, staging, and production
Microservices architecture: Containers are a good choice for microservices architecture because they can be used to deploy and manage individual services
Cloud computing: Containers are a good choice for cloud computing because they can be easily scaled up or down to meet demand
Continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD): Containers can be used to support automated processes of building, testing, and deploying applications

Containers are a powerful tool that can be used to improve application development, deployment, and management. They are a good choice for a variety of use cases, and are becoming increasingly popular in the cloud computing industry.

What are common use cases for virtual machines?

Virtual machines are a popular choice for a variety of use cases, including:

Testing: Virtual machines can be used to test new software in a safely sandboxed environment. This is because the VM can be easily reset or deleted if the software causes problems.
Development: Virtual machines can be used to develop software on different operating systems. This can be useful for developers who need to test their software on different operating systems, or for users who want to use different operating systems for different tasks.
Isolation: Virtual machines can be used to isolate applications from each other. This can be useful for security segmentation and resource partitioning.
Cloud computing: Virtual machines are a popular choice for cloud computing because they can be easily scaled up or down to meet demand.

Disaster recovery: Virtual machines can be used in support of disaster recovery strategies. This is because the VM can be easily restored from a backup if the host machine fails.

Virtual machines are powerful tools that can be used for various purposes. They are a cost-effective way to run multiple operating systems and applications on the same computer, and they can be used to test new software in a safe environment.