Virtualization vs. Containerization

by Justin Nietzer

containerization

Containers and virtual machines are two of the top approaches to improve scalability and reduce overhead costs. Both can help a software team become responsive to business demands.

Virtualization enables you to run multiple operating systems on a single physical server while containerization enables you to deploy multiple applications using the same operating system on a single server.

Both containers and virtual machines are software that create self-contained virtual packages. Although they share this commonality, they do differ in their characteristics.

The Main Differences

  1. The advantage of multiple copies
      2. Many copies of a container can exist at the same time in a system. If any container failed, you can remove the defective one and replace it. While doing this, there will be no change or impact on the service itself. Older versions can exist at the same time with newer versions.
  2. Scaling related workloads
      3. Containers only contain services that have the capability of judging when there is a need for scaling based on the sequence of traffic follows.
  3. Foundation for running an application
      4. Containerization can only run the Linux application since it only supports the Linux environment.
  4. Using microservices architecture
      5. One can operate these microservice systems without excluding any single application.

Which should you use?

It depends on your objective!

Virtual machines are great for supporting applications that require an operating system’s full functionality. Containers are a better choice when your biggest priority is to minimize the number of servers you’re using for multiple applications.

Containerization offers an elective strategy for Virtualization in which a single working framework on a host can run a wide range of users from the cloud.

The use case makes a big difference in deciding which is better for you. Because of their fast set up time, containers offer a better choice for tasks with a much shorter lifecycle. Virtualization, however, has a longer lifecycle and are used for longer periods of time. Read here if you want more information.

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