Virtual Machine (VM) vs. Container
In this article, I would like to compare virtual machines (VMs) with containers and outline the main differences on a high level. Further sources are linked at the end of the article to dig deeper into this topic. Virtual machines (VMs) and containers are two of the main pillars of modern cloud architecture to run services, and both are in the service portfolio of Azure, Google Cloud, and AWS. The following picture describes an overview of the following description.
Definitions — VMs and Containers
Virtual machines emulate fully separated computer systems with their own complete operating systems (OS). To manage and provide VM service to the end-users, Hypervisors are needed to run various VMs on a shared infrastructure. As shown in the picture above, there are two types of Hypervisors. The main difference between a Type 1 and a Type 2 Hypervisor is the underlying Host Operating system that is only present on the Type 2 Hypervisor. VMs are a standard offering of Azure, Google Cloud, and AWS.
Containers only require the components of the Operating System that is required to run the application. Typically Linux and Windows are used as Operating Systems that talk directly to the Container Engine. Each container shares the host OS kernel and, usually, the binaries and libraries, too. For the efficient use of…
