These are differences between Container and VM

VM a.k.a Virtual Machine, I guess everybody knows already what it is. But Container? Probably you just heard about it recently and that’s likely what brings you here – what are the main differences between a Container and a VM. Aren’t they the same?

They are the same – in terms of virtualization. Both technology – Container and VM – enables virtualization. However, fundamentally they are different.

Differences between a Container and a Virtual Machine

In short:

VM is virtualization at machine level – that’s why they got the name as virtual machine. They have separate or should I say – dedicated – predefined resources: CPU, Memory and Hard disk space.

While Container is aiming to be more efficient than a VM. Container is virtualization at operating system level.

Virtual Machine vs Containers jilaxzone.com
Virtual Machine vs Containers. Image courtesy of Microsoft. Taken from Windows Containers eBook

Or in more friendly language:

Think a Virtual Machine (VM) is a computer or a laptop but virtual and it sits inside a container everybody knows as a VM.

While Container is – put it in simpler terms – think of it like an application/program, but virtual – it sits inside a container what today people called as Container (and the process is called containerization). To note, it’s not necessarily just one program or one process. Inside a Container, it could be sets of programs or processes.

Here’s some other differences.

#Virtual MachineContainer
VirtualizationMachine level
(contains CPU, RAM, HDD)
Operating system level
Size-wiseBigger,
since it’s a whole computer
Smaller,
since only a handful of
processes / programs
OS-wiseA separate full OS from hostShare kernel with host
Great forProviding functionality
just like a normal
real computer
Cloud ready application,
headless non-interactive
process, apps or programs

Known namesVMWare, VirtualBoxDocker, Kubernetes

Well, in case you still don’t get the differences between the two, I don’t blame you. But here’s a YouTube video which probably can help you to better understand what is a Container and how is it different from Virtual Machine.

Great way to explain what is a Container and how is it different from Virtual Machine (It’s using Kubernetes)

Hopefully, after reading and seeing the video above, now you know the fundamental differences between a Container and a Virtual Machine.

Is Container always better than VM?

Since Container is smaller in size, cloud-ready and doesn’t need a lot of resources (sharing directly with host), so is Container always the choice to go?

Well, depends on your use case. Containers are known and best for non-interactive, headless and stateless apps. So if the programs, processes or applications are not meeting those criteria, they may not be a good candidate to be containerized.

Still hungry for more?

If you want to know more about Containers, here’s a FREE eBook from Microsoft which explaining Windows Containers based on Docker technology.

Get the FREE Windows Containers as well as other IT related eBooks for FREE here.


Do you have anything you want me to cover on my next article? Write them down on the comment section down below.

Alternatively, find more interesting topics on JILAXZONE:

FREE!LifeTech
How-ToPositive Cash FlowAndroid
TravelAll articlesiOS & iPhone

JILAXZONE – Jon’s Interesting Life & Amazing eXperience ZONE.


Hi, thanks for reading my curated article. Since you are here and if you find this article is good and helping you in anyway, help me to spread the words by sharing this article to your family, friends, acquaintances so the benefits do not just stop at you, they will also get the same goodness and benefit from it.

Or if you wish, you can also buy me a coffee:

buymeacoffee_jilaxzone.com

Thank you!

Live to Share. Share to Live. This blog is my life-long term project, for me to share my experiences and knowledge to the world which hopefully can be fruitful to those who read them and in the end hoping to become my life-long (passive) income.

My apologies. If you see ads appearing on this site and getting annoyed or disturb by them. As much as I want to share everything for free, unfortunately the domain and hosting used to host all these articles are not free. That’s the reason I need the ads running to offset the cost. While I won’t force you to see the ads, but it will be great and helpful if you are willing to turn off the ad-blocker while seeing this site.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Comment moderation is enabled. Your comment may take some time to appear.