Comparing Virtual Machines And Linux Containers

Abstract

When a single server needs to be split between multiple customers, the solution that seems the most straightforward is virtual machines. In recent years, a new technology imposed itself as an alternative: lightweight containers. Containers enable isolation of different processes on a single computer. Each container acts as if it were alone on the system. While virtual machines use full virtualization and create a complete virtual computer, containers use standard features of the kernel. As such, containers provide better performance, at the expense of some rigidity compatibility-wise. This rigidity is compensated by convenient tools that permit the creation of an entire ecosystem of containerized applications. This paper explores the theoretical and practical differences between each solution.