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.
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 Machine | Container |
| Virtualization | Machine level (contains CPU, RAM, HDD) | Operating system level |
| Size-wise | Bigger, since it’s a whole computer | Smaller, since only a handful of processes / programs |
| OS-wise | A separate full OS from host | Share kernel with host |
| Great for | Providing functionality just like a normal real computer | Cloud ready application, headless non-interactive process, apps or programs |
| Known names | VMWare, VirtualBox | Docker, 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.
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.
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